Mother seeks justice for daughter killed at Brown Sugar Festival

A mother is looking for justice after her daughter was gunned down at Clewiston’s Brown Sugar Festival in May.

Evereonna Sankey’s life was cut short by a bullet at 20 years old.

Her sister was also shot, said Evereonna’s mother Teresa Sankey.

Evereonna’s sister performed CPR on her but it took an ambulance 30 minutes to get through the crowd to her.

Teresa Sankey said the festival is dangerous and lacks proper security and police officers are outnumbered.

Teresa Sankey said the Brown Sugar Festival needs to be canceled.

“It’s heartbreaking and my daughter’s in counseling and other members of my family are going to counseling because she was just a bright shining star with so much to offer and they took that and they took my husband,” Teresa Sankey said.

Her husband died three days after her daughter because of a heart attack.

Organizers are planning on talking tomorrow to discuss a possible Brown Sugar Festival in 2022.

Angela McClary, with the Parents of Unsolved Murders group, said when she heard about the shooting at the festival, she was devastated.

“That no one can just go have fun and someone just come there and interfere with that fun and don’t have no regards for life and just start shooting and killing innocent people,” McClary said.

McClary knows that kind of pain. Two of her sons were shot and killed in 2014 in Fort Myers and their murder remains unsolved.

Organizers of the event plan to hold a meeting on Thursday to talk about the possibility of another festival in 2022.

McClary said that could bring back memories.

“I believe that it’s going to bring back memories of what happened with their daughter there and that they may feel that it should not be carried on,” McClary said. “It’s just going to bring them back to a place that they don’t really want to be.”

McClary said there are people out there that don’t have respect or regard for life.