{"id":13800,"date":"2012-04-05T14:54:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T18:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13800"},"modified":"2012-04-05T14:54:14","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T18:54:14","slug":"young-man-rises-above-tragedy-to-complete-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13800","title":{"rendered":"Young Man Rises Above Tragedy To Complete College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Four years ago, two brothers went out to celebrate their respective birthdays. But what should have been a joyous occasion, turned into a tragedy that had life-altering results.<\/p>\n<p>The incident that changed the lives of one Tampa family took place on April 8, 2008. <strong>Willie Cherry, III<\/strong>, had just turned 22 on April 5th, and <strong>Adrian Cherry<\/strong> was looking forward to his 18th birthday on April 9th.<\/p>\n<p>The young men had gone to the Salem\u2019s Gyro Restaurant, 4004 E. Hillsborough Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>According to police,<strong> Willie Cherry, III,<\/strong> was inside the restaurant when he observed four men robbing his brother in the parking lot. He attempted to intervene and was shot in the chest. He died at the scene.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ms. Ramona Lawrence<\/strong>, mother of the two young men said her family was devastated following the murder. \u201cI have to forgive, but I can\u2019t forget it. I have to live on, but, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the murder of his brother, <strong>Adrian<\/strong> enrolled at Bethune Cookman University as an Accounting major. He will graduate on May 11th, his mother said.<\/p>\n<p>The murder of her son was made even more devastating because their father, <strong>Willie Cherry, Jr.<\/strong>, had been killed during a robbery 12 years earlier. She credits her faith for having survived. \u201cWhen it happened, I was so deep in the Word. When God puts it together, nothing can take it apart. Still, it\u2019s a hard pill to swallow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just the grace of God. God has really been shining on him. He has stayed strong. I\u2019m just so proud of him, and I thank God,\u201d <strong>Ms. Lawrence<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<p>She further stated that she wanted to surprise <strong>Adrian<\/strong>, who will turn 22 on Monday, April 9th, on his birthday by letting everyone know that he is doing well and moving on with his life.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of his death, <strong>Willie<\/strong> was employed at Carinal Health Center as a Production Coordinator. He was the father of one son, <strong>Willie Cherry, IV<\/strong>, who is now 4-years-old.<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Adrian<\/strong> enjoys spending time with his family, especially his 15-month-old daughter, <strong>Monique<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor Four years ago, two brothers went out to celebrate their respective birthdays. But what should have been a joyous occasion, turned into a tragedy that had life-altering results. The incident that changed the lives of one Tampa family took place on April 8, 2008. Willie Cherry, III, had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}