Wazira Harris died too soon. Her family hopes the loss can become a community’s gain. The pregnant Highland Springs High School senior, who was shot to death April 27 trying to escape an eruption of violence in an apartment complex near her school, was buried yesterday at Oakwood Cemetery after a funeral at St. Paul’s Baptist Church.

More than 300 people turned out to mourn Wazira Harris this afternoon at St. Paul’s Baptist Church.

Heart-shaped balloons, stuffed animals and candles surround the portrait of a pregnant teen who died after being shot Monday at a Highland Springs apartment complex. A note at this curbside shrine urges Wazira Harris to rest in peace and says she’s in a much better place. “Didn’t really know you but saddened by the lost.“ “Loss” is likely what the author meant, but “lost” is apt. The lost ones perpetrating this mayhem are indeed the source of sadness. And “lost” describes Highland Springs, a community engulfed in a wave of violence at odds with its small-town ambience. Harris, who was a senior at Highland Springs High School, is among a half-dozen people slain in the area over the past two years.