Flanked by members of Bryant's family, organizer Hana Abdur-Rahim struck a somber tone before those gathered on a sunny April Sunday afternoon. "Today we are here to continue to lift up the life of Ma'Khia Bryant," she told the crowd. "I don't need a video to know she was a child and she deserved to live." She then introduced a woman named Myra Duke who said she was Bryant's aunt. Speaking to the crowd, Duke thanked them for their dedication to her niece and expressed how sorely the girl's family misses her. "It doesn't seem real," said Duke, who later declined to talk to the Dispatch but said she lives out of town. "Ma'Khia was an angel. This situation didn't have to happen like this; the system failed her."