Family spends Thanksgiving remembering life of mother, grandmother

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KMSP) - A Minneapolis family is remembering the woman they love through good deeds.

Birdell Beeks was killed in a random shooting in May 2016 and Thursday evening her children and grandchildren paid tribute to her legacy at the site of her memorial.

At the intersection of 21st and Penn in the Jordan neighborhood in north Minneapolis a memorial remembering the life of Birdell Beeks still stands more than two years after her death.

On what would have been Beeks’ 61st birthday, this Thanksgiving, a family celebrates a life cut short.

“She did a lot, her door was always open to everyone,” said Bunny Beeks, Birdell's daughter. 

In May 2016, Beeks was in her vehicle with her granddaughter when she was shot by a man attempting to shoot a rival gang member.

Earlier this year, the suspect was found guilty of murder.

“It still hurts,” Bunny said. “It definitely still hurts, but knowing that someone is being held responsible for it helps to ease it a little bit, but what would be better would be to have our mom back.”

The family spent Thanksgiving evening cleaning up Beeks’ memorial and laying down rocks with personalized messages that read, “We love you, we miss you, we wish that you were still here,” said Bunny.

On this day of giving, the family is thankful to the community that stood by them in dark times while they honored their loved one. Now, they continue to push for an end to the violence.

“The number of shootings have gone down, not to the extent that we like. We’d like to see them go down more of course because there should be no people out here shooting,” Bunny said.