CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's becoming a headline seen too often in our community, children victimized by gun violence.
Over the weekend, two more children were shot in the daylight, and a 15-year-old identified as Shamareon Mckinney died from his injuries. Community members are now seeking solutions, speaking out on what they feel is contributing to the problem.
“This area is lacking, it needs a lot of things," New Outreach Christian Center pastor Brenda Stevenson said.
Stevenson recently spoke about how kids in the Northwest area of Charlotte don’t always get to experience life the way others do.
“No movie theaters, no skating rinks, people in this area don’t always have transportation so they cant just get up and go," Stevenson said. "We had some children in our summer camp that never ever went to a restaurant.”
She said the options either aren’t there, or families in the area don’t have the funding or transportation to get to them. Stevenson said she feels it’s contributing to the violence plaguing our youth.
"Things would change dramatically if we had something in this community,” Stevenson said.
At the time of her interview, a 14-year-old, 15-year-old, and 7-year-old had just been shot in the Hovis Road area. Since then, McKinney and another minor was shot this past weekend roughly two miles away on Tuckaseegee Rd.
“It's heartbreaking to kind of hear the number of tragic events surrounding young people in our community,” Charlotte councilman Malcolm Graham said.
Graham said the city has had the shootings on their radar.
“We’re all in this together trying to find ways where we can really stop the violence, interrupt the violence before it occurs, and more importantly try to find activities and outreach," Graham said.
Graham said the pandemic has made activities a challenge.
"The natural outlets for kids to participate have really been limited over the last year simply because of COVID-19," Graham said.
Graham said communities will see activities restart as the vaccine becomes available, but Stevenson feels there need to be more physical community centers in the area that are free and easily accessible.
The city has also just invested money into a cure-violence program which hopes to use community members to stop violence before it happens, hoping they can reach our youth.
On Thursday evening the community held a vigil for 15-year-old Shamareon Mckinney.
