Tamera Mowry-Housley made a tearful return to The Real on Monday after her niece was killed in a mass shooting earlier this month at a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Alaina Housley, 18, was one of 12 people who lost their lives when a gunman opened fire at the Borderline Bar and Grill on the night of Nov. 7.
Tamera reflected on Alaina, who was a student at Pepperdine University.
“Our family’s been through a lot. But the interesting thing about grief is that you’ve got to find the balance of moving forward and grieving at the same time,” Tamera told her co-hosts as her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s just been a little over two weeks. [Alaina] would want me to be here and she would want me, sweet Alaina, to move forward,” she continued. “I don’t like to say move on, because I don’t think I’ll ever move on with the fact that she’s not here with me or with our family.”
REST IN PEACE: Big brother-to-be, soon-to-retire sergeant among the victims of Thousand Oaks shooting https://t.co/O4wEPOtqGy pic.twitter.com/WPIaIh0n1C
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 8, 2018
“She would want me to move forward and to use her voice as a catalyst for change, and that’s why I’m here today,” Tamera stated before speaking out against gun violence.
“Our country, and it’s sad to say this, but you have to be living underneath a rock to not believe these words — our country is sick,” she continued.
“It’s diseased. It needs healing. It needs healing from within. We’re so divided. We should never have to fight for the safety of our children,” she said to applause. “We should never have to fight for that. That should just happen out of your heart, out of human decency. And I feel that if we talk to our representatives and talk from that place, just maybe, maybe we will be able to move forward. If it’s up to me, I’m going to make sure it happens.”
Among the other people killed in the shooting was Ventura County sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, 54, who rushed inside the bar to confront the gunman.
