'Who All Has a Part?'

"There was a lot of yelling, and someone called the police," Tippett said, adding that officers remained at the scene until the group was calm, and no charges were filed.

The pastor urged those at White's funeral to resist the impulse to lash out.

"This is not the time to threaten or be threatened," Gurley said. God, he said, would ensure that justice is done.

"Pour out a little Hennessy [cognac], drink some 40s, smoke a bag of weed, hit a dipper or two if you want to . . . but that won't bring him back," he said. "Get as drunk or as high as you want and do it in his honor if you want to, but that will not bring him back."

Gurley then challenged the mourners to use White's death as motivation to improve their own lives.

"Come in my life today," Gurley prayed on behalf of the hundreds who flocked to the altar at his invitation to give their lives to Christ. "Come into my heart. Change me. Save me. Let me be blessed."

After the service, Edward Butler, 17, and Kevin Merrick, 19, both close friends of White's who live in Laurel, said they accepted Gurley's invitation because they fear for their lives.

"You just never know who dislikes you or what is going to happen," Merrick said.

"Everybody around you can be harmful," said Butler, who also lost his 17-year-old cousin, Kenyatta Boodram, in a District Heights killing last month. "You just get tired of it."

Kim Butler said she was glad that White's death had spurred her son to think about his safety.

"I pray every night for God to send the angels down wherever he is to keep him protected and to bring him back in the house safe," she said. "There are so many things out here that can happen to these young people. They need all the help they can get to stay safe."

Staff writer Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.