Evanston community members walk alongside police to call for the violence to stop

CINCINNATI — "Put the guns down, stop the killing."

Evanston community members and Cincinnati police officers came together for a peace walk to call for an end to the violence in their community.

“We’re here to work in tandem with the community to say enough that the community is tired of it and the police are here to support them,” said Captain Danita Pettis.

They started the peace walk at the intersection of Woodburn Avenue and Blair in Evanston because that was the site of two recent shootings.

“There was actually one homicide at this location,” Pettis said. ”And then we also had a shooting, a double shooting.”

“Violence at this particular location has gotten out of control. We don’t know the cause, but we know the effect,” said Reverend Peterson Mingo. “Our children are killing our children and our lives need to matter to them, their lives need to matter to us. We can no longer sit back and say somebody needs to do something. We need to do something."

Pamela Watkins lives up the street from that intersection and said she was minutes away from potentially getting shot.

“I had just left from down here maybe 15 minutes before it happened and all I could think was, 'Oh my God, I could have been walking out the store!' From what I heard, I guess there was a shooting I guess right around in this area,” Watkins said.

Pettis said she hopes this walk sends a clear message to those starting violence in the community.

“We want them to know the people who are out here doing the violence, the people that are out here carrying the guns, we want them to know we’re not going to be silent, the community is not going to be silent,” Pettis said.

She noted she was happy to see a diverse group of people attend the peace walk.

“Diversity is always a beautiful thing because people from varying backgrounds we may all have different life experiences, but we all ultimately have the goal which is to live in peace, live in safety and we want to know the communities that we live in are safe for our children,” said Pettis.