COVINGTON, Ky. — Covington's Latonia community is working together to change people's perspectives in light of the recent violence.
In a week, a 2-year-old and a 14-year-old were shot and killed in two separate shootings. When Pastor Dan Francis heard the teenager, Amani Smith, died, it brought up some old memories. Back in the 1970s, someone pointed a gun at him and his older brother David. Dan tried to defuse the situation.
“He shot me first and then my brother saved my life. He took the rest of the bullets. His son saw that as a 4-year-old,” he said. “It was an awful, awful experience. I was in intensive care for seven days.”
David was 25 years old. He was shot and killed one street over from where Smith was killed. Now, Dan helps one of Smith’s older brothers process the same type of loss.
"He’s weeped with me about the incredible sadness of losing his 14-year-old brother," Dan said. "He has a tattoo on his shoulder about his brother Amani."
RELATED| 'Piece of us is missing': Friends, family say goodbye to 14-year-old shot, killed in Covington
Dan wants to be part of the solution to prevent tragedies like this from happening. It’s why he showed up to a meeting organized by Latonia Uptown, a resident group for the community.
April Coffee with Latonia Uptown and Billie Kegley with the Latonia Business Association helped organize it.
"It gave them a space to talk and be heard and you know also possibly momentum to next steps," Kegley said.
They invited a Covington police officer with Latonia roots to explain what’s happening in their community. Coffee said the officers explained how the recent violent incidents have been isolated.
"The Latonia area as far as the City of Covington overall is actually one of the lowest crime areas for the City of Covington and that was one of the conversations expressed by the police officers while we were sitting there," Coffee said. "Where we’ve seen these incidents jump in a very short time and happen all at once it’s not necessarily an explanation of how Latonia works and what happens in our area."
She wants people to know Latonia is a safe place, and the narrative that it isn't needs to change.
"We need that positivity in this community," she said. "We need to bring communities back together, people back together and the businesses back together."
Coffee said one of the officers talked about the broken window theory. It’s an idea that shows visible signs of disarray and invites further disorder that could lead to serious crime. If you repair the window, it makes the community more inviting and uplifts the surrounding buildings, making people feel welcome and safe.
Kegley said it will take the entire community to accomplish this. She said it’s important for kids and teenagers to have a seat at the table too.
"We are also, you know, encouraging them to be vocal of their needs because I think a lot of times we try to project and fix things, but we also need to hear them in the same time frame and see how we can improve," she said.
Kegley mentioned Latonia has a lot of after-school and summer programs, but the community needs to know about them. She said that includes mentorship and internship opportunities. She said the community has work to do to make sure teens know about these opportunities.
Coffee said they want to hear from the community on how they can do better.
"Let us know what you want to see more of. What can we do to help," she said. "We've put on classes, we've put on different events to try and bring our community together. We want our community to tell us what they want."
Kegley and Coffee both said it’s important for people to report things to police or the city. Coffee said people can file a nuisance complaint on the city's website if they don’t want the police to get involved. That way everything is documented.
The two women will host another community forum on March 2, at Bands of Helping Hands in Covington. They’re looking to gear this event toward families and are looking into food vendor options. Coffee said Band of Helping Hands is willing to have counselors onsite if any children or teenagers need to talk.
