CINCINNATI — Police Chief Teresa Theetge said she remembers when shootings were a rarity.
"Early in my career, we didn't have shootings," Theetge said. "Hardly ever. When you had one, it was a big deal that the city had a shooting."
Now, Cincinnati has seen nearly 300 shootings since the start of the year — including Friday's mass shooting in the West End, where 11-year-old Dominic Davis was killed and five others were injured.
"My fear is that as a society we are becoming desensitized to gun violence and thereby quasi-accepting it as the new normal for our society," Theetge said. "And to have an incident like what we had Friday night ... we should never allow ourselves to get to a point where that is acceptable on any level."
Police said someone in a dark sedan fired 22 shots into a crowd of adults and children near Laurel Playground. Davis was not the only child hit. Bullets struck a 12-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy, a 15-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl in addition to a 53-year-old woman.
"The fact of the matter is somebody in this city felt comfortable enough to fire 22 rounds in a community in our city," Theetge said.
According to Cincy Insights, the West End has accounted for 8.3% of this year's shootings in Cincinnati. Of the 28 shootings that have taken place in 2023, two have involved children.
"I don't care how close or how far you live from the West End community, if you live in Cincinnati, you should be appalled by what happened in the West End on Friday night," Theetge said.
Theetge said the ongoing gun violence throughout the city is a health epidemic and should be treated as such. She said she wants to work with different entities "not just the government" to approach the situation and find solutions — especially for the communities hardest hit like the West End.
"What this tells me is we need to collaborate and get into the West End community to start putting things in place that will make a difference because there is something about that community right now that is drawing this type of activity into that community," Theetge said.
Local groups like the Greater Urban League of Southwest Ohio were out in the community, hoping to speak with community members and offer support and potential solutions such as youth programs.
Theetge said working in and with the community will be pivotal and important, but noted that police will need the community's help as well.
"It is going to take everybody in the community to say, 'This is what I know about gun violence in my community,'" Theetge said. "Bring it to the police. Bring it to other entities so that we can help them solve their problems."
Theetge said homicide investigators are looking into every single tip that comes in, wanting to bring Davis' family answers.
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