CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Community leaders in Charlotte are seeking solutions after a violent weekend saw multiple shootings, including the killing of a 16-year-old boy.
On Monday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police identified the victim in a triple shooting as 16-year-old Jaylen Xavier Foster. Investigators also announced that a 14-year-old was charged with murder in connection with Foster's death.
CMPD Maj. Ryan Butler said the other two victims who were shot were sent to the hospital. One of them was hit in the leg, the other in the neck. All of them were younger than 25.
"One of the individuals was born in, I believe it was 1997," Butler said. "One was born in 2000 and one born in '05. So all fairly young men."
"We as adults are failing these children every single day," Charlotte NAACP President Corine Mack said. "We've got to do better."
Mack said better means reaching kids at school. She also said parents and community members also need to lock up their guns so kids can't access them.
"Embed conflict resolution training throughout the educational system," Mack said.
Beverly Knox-Davis with A Brighter Day Ministries said it starts with listening to kids. Knox-Davis said she hears it often that adults aren't listening to what kids have to say, and because of social media, kids have real problems that many adults didn't experience growing up.
"All of this access that can come right into your homes now, that can get them all tangled up into bullying and difference cliques that become gangs," Knox-Davis said.
She said there's also new pressure to fit in, fueled by the need for likes and followers that can lead kids to find acceptance from the wrong places.
"Now you're pulled in and you have to react in a way that wouldn't necessarily be that you would've chosen to do," Knox-Davis said.
Mack also said to help today's kids, nonviolence organizations need to start working together.
"If leaders of an organization are working against leaders of other organizations, then what do we have?" Mack asked.
Knox-Davis agreed with Mack's sentiment.
"We need to work together," she said. "It's not about one organization, it's about all of us coming together and addressing what we see happening to our young people."
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