A pair of sisters kneeled in a patch of grass together Tuesday evening, pulling out weeds and carefully arranging candles on the ground. A week earlier, the two women stood in the same spot, crying and holding each other in disbelief.
Just feet away, their mother, 71-year-old Doreen Richards Broadbelt, was found dead on Labor Day due to a dog attack in a field next to a Miami Gardens elementary school. On Tuesday, family members stood over the sisters, Lateisha Wilkinson, 36, and Shelley Ann Williams, 50, to shield them from the rain with umbrellas as they tended to the makeshift memorial of flowers and teddy bears honoring their mother.
Dozens of family, friends and coworkers gathered for a vigil outside of Broadbelt’s Miami Gardens home to celebrate her life and comfort each other with food and prayer. The crowd walked from her home to the area blocks away where police say she was killed by dogs as she walked to work at the nearby Walmart. Mourners, many of whom were visibly upset and wearing Walmart uniforms, placed electric candles at the memorial.
Broadbelt’s death shocked the community and reignited a countywide conversation about the dual problem of unleashed dogs and overcrowded animal shelters. Her loved ones say they hope her death will not be in vain…