MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rodney Dunn, Sr. is in mourning today and planning funeral arrangements for his 23-year-old son, who was also a father.
“He was a normal 23 year old but he had a daughter. He worshiped the ground she walked on,” Dunn said.
Police said his son Rodtreze Bailey was shot and killed Friday night at a Raleigh apartment.
Bailey was the first of five men killed this weekend. Police haven’t released suspect information in any of the cases.
“The kids are our priority right now. There’s nothing in this city for kids. Nothing. They took Libertyland. All that stuff from when I was a child,” he said.
Bill Gibbons directs the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. WREG asked him about the latest spurt of violence and how the commissions thinks it’s doing in the first year of the latest Operation Safe Community crime plan.
“You can’t change everything overnight. Having said that, I do think we’re moving in the right direction,” Gibbons said.
He pointed to recent Memphis Police graduation rates and said the city will have a net gain in its police force next year for the first time since 2011. He also said community prosecution efforts and work on a juvenile diversion facility are coming to fruition.
“We’ve been successful in moving forward with this plan at a faster pace than ever before. I feel good about the progress in first year,” he said.
But for Dunn, it’s not fast enough.
“I just know it’s gun violence,” he said of what killed his son.
He said his son’s funeral will be this weekend and the community will remember him in a vigil outside the Stonegate Apartments Monday night at 6.
