Three days after Saturday's Brother To Brother Leadership Forum Mon Valley March for Peace, in which crowds walked from Duquesne to McKeesport in a plea for a summer without violence, 29-year-old Leroy Hughes was gunned down on McKeesport's Evans Street after an argument with a neighbor.

Organizer Rashad Byrdsong said the tragic incident highlighted the importance of the organization's attempts to reach citizens in the Mon Valley.

"That only reinforces the urgency of our efforts and the need to get support from all quarters of the community," he said.

"We're going to be seeing this, particularly in the summer, so we're trying to be proactive."

Mr. Byrdsong, founder of the outreach organization Community Empowerment Association, said he intended for the march to raise awareness that Mon Valley communities face many of the same problems with crime and violence as some city neighborhoods, but receive much less attention.

Participants in the march started at Duquesne City Park on Second Avenue and followed Route 837 south more than 5 miles to Kennedy Park in Mc-Keesport. More than 85 people gathered at City Park before the march to hear from some whose lives had been marked by violence.

"When Shawnta was murdered, it was like the bottom dropped under me. She had just adopted a little baby. She was murdered in front of that baby," said Eugenia Mosby, of McKeesport, wearing a T-shirt with the image of Shawnta Moore Lee, who was slain March 23 in her Clairton home.

Angie Lyerly, of East Liberty, who lost three sons to gun violence in 1999 and 2005, said: "I'm for peace and love, but it's time to get angry.

"I talked to the murderers. I wrote them letters. I wanted to understand why they did this. All three of them said they didn't have men in their life. That's the problem -- they don't have any role models in their lives."

Many at the march, such as Larry Davis with the Coalition for Fathering Families, used the event to reach out to young people without mentors.

"We're creating genocide on our own race," he said. "We have to get together to teach these young men about self-respect."

But despite any success the march had, Mr. Byrdsong said it would have had more impact if elected officials and community leaders participated.

Mr. Byrdsong said he sent letters to the mayors of McKeesport and Duquesne, and school board and council members, but only one councilman, Paul Shelly, of McKeesport, showed up.

Calls to city clerks in McKeesport and Duquesne for comment were not returned.

Mr. Byrdsong said the officials' lack of presence could be construed by residents as a lack of concern.

"If they're going to be noticeably absent at this type of grass-roots community activity, what does that say about them making policies for that community?" he asked.

"It makes you wonder if they look at it as an African-American issue or as a broader public health issue," he said. "As long as it's contained to one segment of the community, the urgency is not there."