Community prayer services organized for this weekend after Sumter murder-suicide

In response to Tuesday night's shooting in Sumter that claimed the lives of five, including three children, a soldier stationed at U.S. Army Central and a former soldier who was identified as the shooter, area pastors have organized a pair of separate services with slightly different focuses for the weekend.
Pastors with Alice Drive Baptist Church and Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church spoke Thursday on the events and said the whole community is invited to both.
The Alice Drive Baptist event will be a community prayer and support service on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Loring Mill Road church, according to Mandy Easton, creative pastor with Alice Drive. The event is being hosted and organized by Sumter Together, a cross-denominational, cross-racial group of pastors from the area that formed in 2020 to promote non-violence, she added.
The service gathering will include Scripture reading, corporate prayers and times for reflection.
Counselors for child abuse, domestic violence and mental health will be available on Sunday at the church from 3 to 5 p.m., she added.
Alice Drive Baptist is at 1305 Loring Mill Road in the western part of the City of Sumter.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., area AME churches will have a service to include prayers and conversation at Wayman Chapel AME, according to the church's pastor, the Rev. Robert China.
The theme will be "Enough is enough: Stop the violence" and is about the ninth event the group has held since July 2021. Representatives from different areas of the community to include educators, first responders, parents/siblings, clergy and others will speak on how repeated violence affects them.
Wayman Chapel AME is at 160 N. Kings Highway, Sumter.