‘Brooklyn is breathing, Brooklyn is living,’ pastor says at gathering for pizza deliverer who was shot

It is too often that vigils are held for the dead.

But the people who filled Macon’s Lundy Chapel Baptist Church for Brooklyn Rouse’s vigil weren’t mourning.

Rouse, 21, is a survivor.

“Brooklyn is breathing, Brooklyn is living,” executive pastor/ministry coordinator Alex Gibson sang as people clapped. “She’s not dead. She’s really alive. She’s living on the inside.”

Rouse, a Howard High School graduate who had attended Georgia Southern University had been working for Papa John’s Pizza for exactly two weeks when she was shot in the head outside a house on Vivian Drive on the day after Christmas.

It was supposed to be a day off work, but Rouse was called in by her boss.

An order came in by phone that evening, a woman ordering two pizzas to be delivered to Vivian Drive.

The order was phony and allegedly made by a man and woman who had intentions of robbing a delivery driver. Rouse showed up at the house and was shot in the head.

She remains critical at a Macon hospital, but is showing signs of slow improvement.

Karissa Coleman, Rouse’s aunt, said she was at a loss for words “but overwhelmed with love.”

“I want to personally thank you for not making Brooklyn a hashtag,” Coleman said at the gathering, adding that what was done to her niece isn’t some viral online trend to be quickly forgotten.

“We’re a strong family, we’ve always been. ... This is the most love I’ve seen.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 8:21 PM with the headline "‘Brooklyn is breathing, Brooklyn is living,’ pastor says at gathering for pizza deliverer who was shot."