CINCINNATI — Cincinnati leaders memorialized murder victims with a ceremony in their honor at Memorial Hall on Saturday. Hundreds of names of those killed lined the walls as the families of murder victims walked through, inspecting them.
Cincinnati Police Victims Assistance Unit Health Program Manager Karen Rumsey showed us the art that children in Winton Hills had drawn for the group after experiencing gun violence themselves.
"Most of them want it to stop, want the gun violence to end," Rumsey said. "Most of what I heard the kids say is they just want to be kids, and they want to grow up."
Many family members walking past the names of those lost to gun violence still had no answers about who killed their loved ones.
Hear more from families who have lost someone to gun violence in the video below:
Tracie Sledge lost her daughter, Darian Woods, in 2019.
"The police are not magicians. They can't pull something from nothing," Sledge said.
She calls for anyone with knowledge of what happened to come forward.
While we talked with Sledge, Venus Vall waved at us and asked to be interviewed as well.
Vall's son, Danias Weaver, was shot and killed just last year.
"He was an army veteran," she said. "I would have preferred his life be taken that way."
We asked Vall what message she wanted to put out to the public since she had sought us out.
"The main message I want is don't be afraid to speak up. Let's get out there and talk about it. Let's get out here and find solutions," she said.
We also asked Rumsey what she believes is the solution to the epidemic of gun violence.
"We keep bringing awareness to what it does, the lives that it shatters and takes away," Rumsey said.
She added that it takes a comprehensive approach to solve gun violence, including policing, victim support programs and prevention efforts like gun security education programs.
Part of the solution would include getting killers off the street, and Sledge calls for people to come forward and help her get her daughter's shooter behind bars.
"There are people out there that know what happened," she said.
Anyone with information to help solve Cincinnati's cold cases can call Cincinnati Police, or they can stay anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (513) 352-3040.
