CINCINNATI — As police continue to search for a killer six months after a gunman killed 11-year-old Domonic Davis and injured five others, West End residents have promised to find solutions to gun violence in the region.
City officials, anti-gun violence advocates, Davis's family and others from the West End will walk from the Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy at 10 a.m. Saturday in the boy's honor.
Ali Rizvi, a social worker at Hays-Porter School, helped organize the anti-violence march, town hall and afternoon peace concert to help find answers to the community's scourge of gun violence.
"They're tired of burying their children. They're tired of burying their babies," Rizvi said.
Rizvi said area nonprofits and community leaders need to, first, work to help people find ways to move forward through non-violence and, second, give young people more to do to avoid getting into trouble.
"How are you expected to raise a family and have children who are going to perform well in school when they feel like they're living in a combat zone? It's an impossible ask," he said.
As Rizvi and others set to march for immediate solutions, 10 West Enders named in a federal complaint to the Department of Housing and Urban Development are working toward a long-term solution involving housing.
West End Community Council Vice-President Noah O'Brien said the full council hasn't voted to support the complaint as it was filed after their last meeting, but he the supports change to issues raised within it.
"All you have is poverty," O'Brien said. "What happens when all you have is poverty?"
The complaint alleges the city of Cincinnati concentrated publicly funded restricted-income housing into largely black neighborhoods like the West End creating a cycle of poverty and violence.
"Unfortunately, the city felt that it's optional," O'Brien said. "That, 'Oh yeah, white neighborhoods don't want it? We'll put it in the black neighborhoods.' That's not optional. It's a violation of the law."
O'Brien called on the city to spread out restricted-income housing and make investments in largely forgotten neighborhoods.
"Best case scenario, the city steps up to the table and they start to address those harms," he said.
A city official declined a request for comment on the complaint Friday.
