Jan 8, 2008 8:29 pm US/Eastern
Church Protests Outside Wrong Way Crash Funerals
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
It's a heartbreaking tragedy that left a Baltimore County man alive, while his wife and four of their children are gone.
As
Derek Valcourt reports, friends and family remembered those who were lost in a devastating crash in Ohio.
Danny Griffin is still wearing a neckbrace more than a week after the car accident that took the lives of his wife and four of their children. He was surrounded by friends and family at St. Luke's Church on Harford Road Tuesday for a memorial service honoring his fallen family.
Danny and Bethany Griffin, along with six of their seven children, were returning home to Maryland after visiting relatives for the holidays in Michigan when they crashed into a car going the wrong way on an Ohio interstate. Police say the driver of the other car, 24-year-old Michael Gagnon, had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
Inside the memorial service there were many eulogies and so many visitors that the church had standing room only.
Outside, however, were some unwelcome guests. A few members of the infamous hate group the Westboro Baptist Church decided they would picket the memorial service. They say the accident was God's revenge on Baltimore after they lost a federal lawsuit over similar picketing at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. But guests say they won't let the picket ruin memories of the family they knew so fondly.
"They've touched a lot of people and they are going to be sorely missed. I lived two doors down from them and I watched the kids grow up and it's very difficult for all of us to take it all in," said Paul Gloria, the victims' neighbor.
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