Atlantans gathered together to mourn the loss of 20 people, in three separate killings, during the month of July The Atlanta "service of hope and remembrance" follows a series of recent, violent deaths: July 29 -- Mark Barton, who in the two preceding days had bludgeoned his wife and two children to death, fatally shot nine people and wounded 13 others at two office buildings. Barton committed suicide that night. (13 dead) July 23 -- Two police SWAT team officers from suburban Cobb County were gunned down as they tried to storm the home of a man who had wounded another police officer. The gunman was killed as he tried to escape. (3 dead) July 12 -- Six members of an Atlanta family were shot dead by Cyrano Marks, the live-in boyfriend of Deleane Briskey, who was among those killed. Afterward, Marks killed himself. One of Briskey's children, an 11-year-old boy who survived the shootings, told police Marks was upset by his mother's decision to split up with him. (7 dead)

August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 1:12 p.m. EDT (1712 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Less than a mile from where Mark Barton last week gunned down nine of his victims, people from across the Atlanta area came together Wednesday, hoping to ease the city's pain from a rapid-fire string of July killings.

"We do humbly ask for the healing of our city," said the Rev. Joanna Adams during an interfaith memorial service held following acts of violence that stunned Atlantans.

In separate incidents, 20 people -- including children and police officers -- were killed in the city and suburbs in little more than two weeks. The three gunmen responsible also died, two at their own hand, the other shot dead by police.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell had asked that the entire city take part in a moment of silence at noon to honor the victims.

The moment came at the start of the memorial service at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in the city's Buckhead neighborhood, not far from the office buildings where Barton opened fire at two stock brokerage offices last Thursday. In the days before, he killed his wife and two children.

The church bell tolled solemnly at noon as mourners in the church bowed their heads.

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