(Memphis) A double shooting in Frayser spurred the community to come together to send the message “not in my neighborhood.”
The shooting victims were dropped off at a fire station on Overton Crossing Monday.
After hearing about the violence, community organizers decided to show that one shooting isn’t going to ruin their progress in fighting crime, so they put on a BBQ.
The two people were shot just a block away from the event.
Some say the violence is partially caused because of a lack of community, which is why a BBQ was held there and the whole community was invited.
“Every fire has a spark and we hope this spark ignites this neighborhood like never before,” De’Andre Brown, executive director for Lifeline to Success, said during a prayer.
The event started with a prayer and then some footwork.
Blight Patrol members handed out flyers to people in the neighborhood and invited them to make a change in Frayser.
“Unity in the community, putting the neighbor back in the hood,” the flyer read.
“Do you think this community needs it?” asked reporter Sabrina Hall.
“Yes, ma’am. Because we have people around the corner getting shot. We need that,” said 13-year-old Jahvan Cook.
“We need to learn how to take our neighborhoods back in the right way, not by force but by love,” said Brown.
In light of a recent shooting and other violence on these Fraser streets, Lifeline to Success and community leaders organized an impromptu get-together with food on the grill, laughter, and fun.
Ex-offenders, like Jani McGowen, helped with invitations. Two of his brothers where shot and killed in this same neighborhood.
“I lost my brothers three weeks apart,” said McGowen.
Now he works with the Blight Patrol team, sprucing up the neighborhood that he once might have brought down.
“We train convicted felons on how to be positive productive citizens,” said Brown.
Tuesday, they helped a community see change is possible.
Brown believes much of the crime is because people don’t care about their neighbors because they don’t know them.
This was an effort to change that.
