CINCINNATI — Seventeen people under the age of 18 have been shot in Cincinnati this year, according to data from the Cincinnati Police Department.
That amount of youth shootings, accrued so far since the first of the year, has community and city leaders alarmed.
“Given the reality of what we’ve been seeing for the last 6 months we are really on course to really have a record a year of youth shootings,” said Pastor Ennis Tait.
Tait has been an advocate for gun violence prevention for over a decade. For the past 18 months, he’s been working with a group of teen boys who want to steer clear of the violence.
“They come as often as they can because most of their friends are being hit with this rash of violence. Some of them have even been targets of some of the gun violence, so they need to be able to come in here and sit for a while and let the dust settle,” Tait.
He started off mentoring 25 boys, but that number has dropped.
“I lost three of them along the way; they were killed to gun violence. So, having that counseling piece that grief piece in place that helps our young people,” he said.
Youth gun violence is a problem Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney said she is working to address.
“It’s frightening for families to have their young people out there and not knowing whether they’re going to come home,” she said.
Lemon Kearney said she is looking at gun violence programs across the country, honing in on the ones she thinks the city could replicate.
“There are just too many shootings. There are too many guns out there, too many young people with guns, guns are being passed around. They’re being rented, they’re being hidden in bushes. Young people have easy access to guns,” Lemon Kearney said.
It’s why she wants the city to have an Office of Safety Management to address these issues and fund programs throughout the city. She hopes this initiative will get approved.
“We have to have people saying this is something we need and then we have to find money in the budget, which we’ll do, we’ll do that,” she said.
Youth gun violence is what brought Keiana Rogers to the city hall. She is the founder/CEO of Holloman Enterprise Resources. She started the organization after her daughter was kidnapped and murdered in 2018.
It was a traumatic time for her entire family. Now, she works to help others.
“I’m more like a boots on the ground kind of person,” she said.
Rogers is currently trying to get her prevention program, which seeks to provide a safe space for students, into schools.
“Instead of getting suspended from school you can go to prevention and we can do that three times a week. And what does that look like. It basically just helps them talk about what they’re dealing with,” Rogers said.
She added her program can help the students re-focus so they can be successful.
“We have to realize there’s a lot going on. It’s starting at home, but they’re bringing it to the schools. So, now you have all these schools that teachers don’t want to teach in anymore because the educators are scared. It’s not fair for them either and it’s not fair for the kids that don’t deal with that at home but you have more kids that do then don’t,” Rogers said.
She works with about 22 teens after school twice a month. Her biggest barrier is funding, which is why she went to city hall. She’s in need of a van to help transport all of her students.
Rogers and Tait both would like to see the city invest more into gun violence prevention programs.
“What we need. If I could be honest is commitment. You know, nothing can move without money. There’s no shortage of money in Cincinnati. There is a shortage of support for things like this,” Tait said.
He would like to see a portion of the city’s budget go toward these programs on a yearly basis.
“This is not a $10,000 dollar, $8,000 dollar initiative. When we went to New York it was $50 million dollars. When we went to Baltimore it was $50 million dollars, so there are cities putting in millions of dollars to resolve these issues,” Tait said.
Tait and Rogers will both continue to do the work to help teens in need and want to see others get on board.
Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Jonathan Cunningham said they look at a comprehensive report each Monday where the shootings are happening in the city. He said they need more people to speak up when they see something even if they think it's small.
Cunningham also encourages people to call the police if they see an argument in the street escalating. He said it's best to call the police so they can diffuse the situation.
