MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Another child’s life tragically taken due to gun violence.
Less than a week into the year and police say a 10-year-old boy has been shot and killed in North Memphis. It’s a continuation of a problem we’ve reported to you in depth last year.
In 2020, around 10-percent of Memphis reported homicides were children. It’s disturbing to report and disturbing for many to hear as in most of those cases the children were just innocent bystanders.
Memphis broke its record for child deaths last year. Here we are five days into the new year and that violence against children continues with a 10-year-boy shot and killed standing outside his North Memphis home.
People who live in the community are saying enough is enough.
“Here’s a young person whose life has been taken from them. We don’t know the potential of what that individual may have been or could have been in life,” James Thomas, who lives nearby, said.
It’s a frustrating thought that grows with each senseless death.
“It’s not my child but whatever goes on in the community it affects everyone not just that person or individual. It affects the entire community as a whole we need to put down the guns,” Beverly Loverson, a neighbor, said.
Thomas added, “We are continually having these problems go around, and it seems like no one is reaching out trying to come up with some type of solution to do something to try to stop these situation from happening in our community like this.”
But for those solutions to come, community activists say won’t happen without more proactive steps in place.
“We’ve got to come together and get the community involved with law enforcement and get law enforcement more involved with the community,” Stevie Moore, of Freedom From Unnecessary Negatives, said.
Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas represents the area of this most recent child shooting.
She believes a multi-faceted approach is how to keep our kids safe.
“If we in tandem focus on the response of our police, the support of our community, the influx of high-wage jobs, the financial support of our education system. these are the factors that we need to use to measure how we’re really trying to curb violence.”
City council recently discussed creating a city-wide anti violence task force that would focus on intervention efforts to hopefully stop a shooting before it happens.
