At funeral, family of first victim in Kingsessing mass shooting vows to ‘get justice’ and decries gun violence ‘pandemic’

Joseph Wamah Jr.’s white casket, draped in a pall made of white and gold roses, lay in front of the stage at Victory Harvest Fellowship International Church in Southwest Philadelphia on Saturday morning, where mourners gathered to celebrate the life of the first victim of last month’s Kingsessing mass shooting.

A processional entrance of clergy and family members began the three-hour service, which included hymns, offerings, Scriptures, prayers, and instrumental selections while a memorial slideshow played behind the casket flanked by floral arrangements and photos of Wamah and his art.

Hand-in-hand, friends and community stepped up to view the 31-year-old’s body and pay respects. After hymns, Wamah’s parents and siblings gathered around their son and brother to say their goodbyes, taking turns kissing and caressing his face, then closing the casket together.

Soon would come a call for justice and a condemnation of the gun-violence “pandemic.”

“We are gonna get justice for Joseph,” sister Jasmine Wamah promised. “Everybody that was involved or took part in Joseph’s death, we are going to find you — there are consequences. Rest in peace, Joseph. I love you, and I’m glad that I told you the last time I saw you.”

Wamah — a talented artist and actor known for his love of Pop-Tarts while growing up — was found dead inside the home he shared with his father on the 1600 block of South 56th Street hours after he was killed.

Authorities would later determine that Wamah was killed on July 2 but was not immediately found because police had been dispatched to reports of gunshots on North 56th Street, three miles away from the crime scene on South 56th Street. Nearly two days later, authorities say, the gunman, identified by police as 40-year-old Kimbrady Carriker, dressed in a bulletproof vest and wielding an “AR-style” rifle, returned to the area and went on a shooting rampage, killing four more people and injuring two children.

“I really, really miss my son,” Jonah Wamah Sr. told those gathered at Victory Harvest Fellowship. “We were like brothers — he and I lived together for years.”

Wamah’s mother, Helen, tearfully described her son as “a beautiful soul.”

In his eulogy, Pastor William Boymah denounced the country’s gun violence “pandemic” and suggested that it has betrayed the dreams of immigrants.

“Liberian immigrants, we had a vision of America — that life would be beautiful,” he exclaimed. “But we did not know that there would be hatred, that people would be free to walk around with guns in hand. This uncertainty has shattered our lives — we have to bury our children with this calamity.”

Boymah also reminded the crowd that “they can shoot the body, but they cannot shoot the dreams.”

“Take action, God is working,” he urged.

Tributes for Wamah also came from representatives of Liberian Association of Pennsylvania, Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, former Councilmember Jannie Blackwell, and others.

Singing the hymn “When We All Get to Heaven,” clergy led Wamah’s casket outside with family members following close behind. Other mourners marched after, carrying the tune out into the gloomy yet sunny day as his brothers Jonah Jr. and Jonathan and others placed the coffin inside the hearse. It would carry Wamah’s body to Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Delaware County.

As the hearse drove away, people embraced and sang the final notes of the hymn for the first victim of one of the deadliest mass shootings in the city’s history.