A Mother’s Statement

Blake Mohs Victims Impact Statement

By Lorie Mohs, mother of Blake Mohs

May 27, 2024

To:          Alameda County Superior Court

East County Hall of Justice

Thank you for the opportunity to provide my victims impact statement. While I have known this time would come, it has been much more difficult to put my heart ach into words that could be transcribed or written in verbal form….  So here is where we start.

On January 14, 1997, my son Blake Mohs was born into this world.  He was brought into a world that needed hope, peace, love and kindness.

Blake was my first born, giving me the official title of Mama. 

He made my sister’s Auntie’s for the first time as well, and is so far is the only 4 year old nephew to have the legacy of eating an entire large pizza by himself.

 He made my father a grandfather, with the desire to follow in is footsteps to become a police office, and a cowboy.  

He was the first of 6 grandchildren, making him the first bookend to hold all of the books of our family together on the shelf.

He was the 2nd player in the game of life to his younger bother, Matthew, as he always put this bother before him in the 1st player spot.

He also so many things to so many people.  He made an impact on every life he touch, from being a Newark Police Explorer & Cadet, an Eagle Scout, Christian and youth leader, a scout gun range safety leader, musician, Chef, friend, cousin, grandson, nephew and son.

Blake lived his 26 years here on earth to the fullest, never letting anything stump his desire to learn, grow or help others.  He loved much, laughed often and hugged tightly.

Blake lived life Stitch style-Ohana style- “No one gets left behind or forgotten. So they best way for me to describe the impact of the loss of my son, Blake is with a letter to him.

A letter to my son,

Son, on the day you left this earth for heaven, I wish that I would have called you, but it was a Tuesday, so I planned to wait for our normal call day of Wednesday… But I wish that I could have heard your voice one more time, heard your amazing laugh, I wish that I could have said “I am sorry, forgive me”.  I wish I could have said “I love you” and “see you again real soon”…  but I was not given that chance.  You see, you instead chose to go before me to heaven, knowing full well that your actions would take you from this earth and resurrect your spirit to heaven.  Even in your death you were protecting and serving others. 

When you were conceived, I wrote a story of what our life would look like. I wrote a story of love and happiness, of being a front row mom for anything you wished to achieve, I wrote a story of baking cookies, pumpkin carvings, family dance parties, the monkey bomb game, and much more. I wrote a story doing whatever it took to help you achieve your goals. We lived the story loud and proud.  I watched you learn how to crawl, walk and then run to achieve whatever you wanted to grasp in life.  I watch you devote your life to Jesus, fall in love and learn how to fight for the lesser of these.

I dreamed that our story would have continued to include, walking you down the aisle to meet your bride, oh how I looked forward to our mother/son wedding dance. I looked forward to seeing you become a father with lushes curly haired grandchildren for me to spoil.  I wrote a story of multiplying the memories we created with your growing family.  I wrote a story of watching you touch more people with your kindness, love, empathy, and of you serving your community.  I looked forward to seeing you and your brothers’ families hanging out together, watching all of the grandchildren playing in the back yard. I looked forward to more memories with your cousins, more card games, fellowship, and growing in the new life stages.   I was excited for bigger Christmas celebrations, Disney trips, simply days with you and your brother … But all of those dreams and hopes are now gone. 

I know by faith, that you were called home at the exact moment and time that God had designed for His glory.  I know that my longing to hear your voice, rubble of your laughter or  feel your hugs is just my grief, my love with nowhere to land.

I know that you would want me to be strong and offer forgiveness, because that is who you are.  So today, I do offer my forgiveness for those that took you from this Earth,  Father forgive them for they do not know what they have done.  They do not know the kind man that was going to offer them an opportunity to make a better choice that day on April 18, 2024.  They do not know the man that was going to offer compassion to them.  They do not know the person that would have emptied his bank account to offer them a warm meal.

They simply do not know the person that they killed.  My prayer is that they can see the kind of man you were by our faith and grace and offering of forgiveness.  We offer forgiveness not from our earthy persons, but from our Heavenly Father who gives us strength to write a new story for our lives, our family and the legacy of our son.  We pray that they will take this opportunity to seek Him, seek forgiveness, and redeem their family legacy for their children here on earth.

So today, my son, in honor of you and our faith we offer forgiveness.  This forgiveness is not without sacrifice.  We will continue to struggle with your death, miss your laughter, longing for your hugs  and simply wish for you to be here on earth with us.

My heart will always feel the emptiness of you leaving earth so early. I will miss you my son, all of my days here on earth, but I look forward to being reunited in heaven when I am called home.

To the court:

Not saying a final goodbye or I love you to my son broke my heart

Telling my family Blake had been shot and killed was tortuous

Planning and attending our son’s celebration of life was life numbing

Fighting for justice was revictimizing

Hear my son’s name during the Thanksgiving prayer as one of those that has reached heaven, killed my spirit

Walking the past 415 days without our son here on earth brought dark loneliness

Reading the submitted victim’s impact statements submitted, helped me understand the pain that our family, his friends and our community still struggle to reconcile

Writing my victims impact statement brings the realization that my son is really gone.  It brings me closer to my faith as I live on the edge of heaven, with two of my three children  already waiting for my home coming

This statement also brings forgiveness to those that took Blake from this earth too soon, and for the justice system to no longer hold our lives randsom.

We can now move forward in our healing, which will lead to bringing change that will honor our son, Blake Mohs’, legacy of O’hana.