Community prayer service organized after Sumter shooting leaves mom's 3 children, Army co-worker dead

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In response to Tuesday night’s shooting in Sumter that claimed the lives of 5, including three children, a soldier stationed at U.S. Army Central and a former soldier who was identified as the shooter, area pastors have organized a community prayer and support service for Sunday at 4 p.m. at Alice Drive Baptist Church.

Mandy Easton, creative pastor with Alice Drive, told The Sumter Item of the service Thursday afternoon and said the whole community is invited. 

Counselors will be available on Sunday at the church from 3 to 5 p.m., she added. 

Alice Drive Baptist is at 1305 Loring Mill Road in the western part of the City of Sumter.

Another community gathering is planned at Wayman Chapel AME for Saturday at 2 p.m., according to the Rev. Robert China. An agenda titles the service “Enough is Enough: How Violence Affects Us” and includes chances for people to speak before pastor remarks and a prayer.

Three siblings, Aason Holliday-Slacks, 6, and Aayden Holliday-Slacks, 5, and Ava Holliday, 11, were shot to death in their beds Tuesday night by the father of the two young boys and stepfather of the 11-year-old girl. The man, identified as the ex-husband of the children’s mother, Aletha Holliday, is said to have shot Holliday’s co-worker, U.S. Army Central Soldier Command Sgt. Maj. Carlos Evans, and the children before turning the gun on himself. Holliday was at the home at the time and was not shot.

Evans joined the Army in July 2002 and served in multiple duty positions and locations around the globe until joining USARCENT in 2021.

Holliday is a sergeant major and serves as chief culinary manager for USARCENT.

Slacks Jr. served in the U.S. Army as a tracked vehicle mechanic from June 1999 to July 2006. He held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of his service, which ended in 2006 when he was honorably discharged.

Aason and Aayden attended Millwood Elementary School, and Ava attended Alice Drive Middle School, both schools in Sumter School District.

Note: Other, non-local media reports are using different spellings of the boys’ first names and the family’s last names. The Sumter Item’s spellings mirror the Sumter Police Department’s incident report and the mother’s Facebook.