COLUMBUS, Ohio — Founder Malissa Thomas-St. Clair created ‘Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children’, also known as MOMCC, because of a very personal connection. 

What You Need To Know

  • Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children (MOMCC) was created by founder Malissa Thomas-St. Clair and co-founder Karla Elliot-Harris because of their own grief and loss and the uptick in crime in 2020

  • MOMCC started a new citywide initiative called "Operation Under Triple Digits" with the hopes to reduce the number of homicides to under 100 because the city has not seen homicide numbers that low in a while

  • Visit mothersofmurderedcolumbuschildren.com to get involved and take the pledge for "Operation Under Triple Digits"

“My son, Anthony St. Clair, was murdered. April 29, 2013. That was the start of the rest of my life being my new normal,” said Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children founder, Malissa Thomas-St. Clair.

And as an educator, she said she sees her students being exposed to violence all too often. 

“Simultaneously, before Anthony was murdered, being a Columbus City school educator, I had already lost several students to violence in the city of Columbus. So, when those two worlds collided, when it actually hit my front door, I started to advocate within the district,” said Thomas-St. Clair.

In 2020, Thomas-St. Clair and her co-founder Karla Elliot-Harris started Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children with a Facebook post because there was an uptick in homicides that year. 

“We also started to see that uptick in 2020. The COVID crime spree where mothers were losing their children at an exponential rate,” said Thomas-St Clair.

Operation Under Triple Digits is an initiative started by MOMCC. It aims to collaborate with different organizations and leaders across the city to reduce the number of homicides to less than one hundred, because they say the city has not seen a number that low in some time.

“It’s important that the entire community take a stand against crime here in the city of Columbus and specifically against murders. And so we’re excited to join them to help promote and try to get the word out to all members of our community that we want to make sure that our community is safe and that the murders stop,” said Columbus City Council member, Emmanuel Remy.

“The best thing about ‘Under Triple Digits’ is it’s owned by the community, commanded by the community and birthed by the community. It’s going to be led and ran by the community,” said Thomas-St. Clair.  

From community conversations to activism and leadership, the mothers say they are learning to live again and channeling their pain into purpose.

If you would like to get involved with operation under triple digits, you can visit their website and take the Operation Under Triple Digits pledge.