MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis police are investigating several recent reports that have a worrisome combination of students and guns.
Police say Nazim Houston, 12, was shot Wednesday evening near North Dunlap and Saffarans.
“All I heard was pow, pow,” said Houston.
He says he was walking with his cousins to get snacks around 7:30 p.m. when he got caught in a crossfire with one bullet hitting his thigh.
“I thought I just scraped my leg or something, so I kept running.”
His reaction to his injury speaks to the gun violence problem in our community.
“I was shocked, but I wasn’t,” he said.
The preteen knows he could’ve died and says he now wants to stay inside his North Memphis home as much as possible.
“They need to stop with all this violence and they need to put these guns away.”
In 48 hours, Houston`s just one young person mentioned in a gun report. It’s a startling fact for activists.
“It lets me know that there`s so much more work to be done,” said Pastor DeAndre Brown with Lifeline to Success.
Police say multiple middle-school students were fighting near Westside Middle School on Tuesday when a student fired a shot into the air.
Authorities also found a gun at KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle School on Wednesday. Thankfully, before anybody got hurt.
“We have to stop glorifying guns and teach children that guns are not toys,” said Brown.
Pastor Brown says all these issues are coming back to the environment kids are raised in.
“I believe that our generation did these children a disservice by modeling that behavior and making it seem normal.”
He pleads for this to be a wake-up call, encouraging people to offer and accept help before another person not even old enough to drive a car becomes the next victim.
Memphis police are still looking for the suspects tied to this recent shooting involving 12-year-old Houston on North Dunlap Street in North Memphis.
If you know anything that can help, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 528-CASH.