ATLANTA, June 3 (UPI) -- An angry Atlanta minister called on teens to give up violence as he gave the eulogy for a 17-year-old girl killed by a man she allegedly was trying to rob.
The Elizabeth Baptist Church was packed for the funeral of Amy Elizabeth Martin, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. About 70 teenagers were among the mourners, along with at least two police officers assigned to the Atlanta schools.
"Once you get here, you don't come back to get it right," Pastor Craig Oliver Sr. told the teens, patting Martin's pink coffin.
Investigators say that Martin and four men attempted to rob an ex-Marine at gunpoint as he walked home from his job as a waiter Monday night. The intended victim, after attempting to run away from the group, pulled a pocketknife from his backpack, inflicting mortal wounds on Martin and critically wounding one of the men.
Oliver dared teenagers in the church to give up their guns. A spokesman for the funeral home said that by Friday night at least three teens had handed over weapons to the church.
