The grieving process is different for everyone. For Roxanne Bruce, a mother who lost her son several weeks ago in a shooting, it is one filled with unthinkable sorrow, sleepless nights and an undying love for God.
A love so deep that Bruce is able to see her family’s testimony and the correlation between the loss of her son, Richard Nelson and God’s divine vision for her life and his story.
“He loved God,” Bruce told Faithwire at the beginning of an emotional thirty minute interview discussing the tragic shooting and the family’s testimony.
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On January 14th, Nelson set aside his own personal safety and rushed to protect his sister from a shooter and four others present on the family’s front lawn in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nelson was at home on his winter break from Missouri State University and packing when he heard a loud noise outside the home. Both Bruce and Nelson ran outside to help his older sister, who was being attacked by five people.
Within minutes, Bruce recalled that her son had stepped in to protect 20-year-old Oneisha Coleman from 17-year-old Richard Newsome, a man on the family’s property with a gun pointed towards his sister, Coleman.
As gunfire erupted and bullets began to fly, Bruce said that she and her son were standing next to each other when she tried to flee to safety. But her son continued to defend his sister.
The gunman’s fire continued and he took Nelson down with five shots, one going straight into his chest. As her son laid down next to her, dying in her arms, she says “(I know) God did not allow my son to suffer” in those moments.
“My son died peacefully…my son laid down, he didn’t fall or collapse and when he took his last breath, I said, ‘God he belongs to you.’ Even though the ambulance tried to revive him and the hospital tried to revive him,” the mother of four states that she just knew that her son had already gone to heaven.
The powerful testament of faith Bruce exhibits is remarkable and showcases her resilience in the face of such darkness and her desire to put her faith first as well as forgiveness.
During the interview, she told Faithwire that she forgives the young man that shot her son and believes that Nelson’s death is part of a Godly purpose because of his strong faith in the Lord.
Bruce plans to share the Gospel, her personal testimony about overcoming drug addiction and losing her young son to the ugly hands of gun violence.
According to the Brady Campaign,an organization focused on creating a safer America states that, 32,000 deaths happen everyday related to gun violence which equals 89 deaths per day.
For every American killed by an act of terror in the US or abroad, 1,000+ are killed by guns, CNN calculated in Oct. https://t.co/K9FE98Gx8D pic.twitter.com/T2WAYHa9UG
— The Trace (@teamtrace) January 30, 2017
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