It was a gloomy Sunday evening, but the rainy weather didn’t stop the community from gathering to honor the life of Margaret Swan, a 66-year-old woman who was stabbed up to 20 times on a MARTA train near the Oakland City station on May 30. A smiling portrait of Swan was displayed under a canopy of candles, white roses, and fruit just feet away from the station where she was murdered. Swan’s daughters, Shanae and Tiara Sams, stood under a white tent as they listened to local organizers with Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) condemn what officials called an “unprovoked act of senseless violence.”
Police arrested the suspect, 25-year-old John Elijah Matthews, just minutes after the stabbing was reported.
“I don’t know if this was his plan, but he created his own art on my mother’s body — 18 to 20 stab wounds. He stood by my mother, slashed her throat. She got up, he threw her on the ground,” Tiara Sams said as she held her daughter and Swan’s granddaughter in her arms. “I feel like I’m more angry than grieving because he’s still alive. He’s still here.”
The candlelight vigil opened with libations and a rendition of the spiritual and civil rights anthem “Oh, Freedom.” As the rain trickled down umbrellas, Mshairi Siyanda, a lead organizer for M4BL, poured water into a potted plant while giving thanks for Swan’s life and the community for showing up.
“When I heard about it, I couldn’t sleep. The next day I woke up, and I told my coworker I wanted to organize a vigil. As soon as I said it to her, she said, ‘Let’s do it,’’ and we immediately started making phone calls; that was this past Tuesday, and here we are today,” Siyanda told The Atlanta Voice.
Siyanda shared that she got in contact with Swan’s daughter, Shanae Sams, and they talked and cried on the phone together for 30 minutes.
“I let her know how hurt I was, how hurt so many other people were, and it was beautiful talking to her. And I’m so grateful that she is here today.”
The candlelight vigil was also a moment for the community to honor the lives of other victims of tragic violence in Atlanta. The atmosphere was filled with sadness and melancholy, but also anger. Many of the speakers expressed disappointment that those who were on the train with Swan didn’t step in to help while she was being attacked.
“It’s our responsibility to be each other’s business, to be each other’s magnitude, to be each other’s harvest and bond. That is a quote by Gwendolyn Brooks. It’s not up to the police. Whether or not the police are present, we should still be responsible to each other. No matter who we are, our daughters should feel safe, our mothers should feel safe, our aunties should feel safe,” Siyanda said. “I’ve been afraid to walk on the BeltLine. I was never afraid to walk in my own community, and it’s not up to me to carry mace, to carry knives, to keep my head on a swivel. It’s up to everybody else to transform and heal.”
Swan’s death follows a recent string of random violence in the city, especially against women. In May, two other women were randomly stabbed: one while eating at a First Watch in Decatur and another while on the BeltLine. The BeltLine victim, 23-year-old Alyssa Paige, was killed. A suspect accused of carrying out a targeted shooting at the Midtown MARTA train on June 5 was arrested on Sunday.
These incidents have raised questions and concerns about public safety days before the FIFA World Cup begins, and the city is flooded with people and teams from around the world.
“I want the city to be responsible for its citizens and not be so engulfed in capitalism. These issues stem from a larger issue — from mental health, from poverty, from capitalism. Things are hard in the city for a lot of people, and folks are desperate. I don’t want the World Cup to be like the Olympics, where we push things aside and clean up our living room while we shove things in the closet,” Siyanda said. “Folks are hurting. There’s no excuse to cause harm, but I want the city to be proactive and not reactive in how we treat its citizens, poor, rich, and in between.”
