New strategy needed to stop gun violence after Fort Worth park shooting, activists say
Activists talked with each other and government officials Wednesday about what measures could be taken to stop another mass shooting like the one that wounded five young people at a Fort Worth park on Sunday.
The Wednesday gathering was more like a meeting, but it was called a press conference. Those who attended agreed that it will take more than just a handful of people to address the problem.
“We’ve got to do something different because what we are doing is not working,” said Rodney McIntosh, who pastors Christ the Risen King Church, 5012 Calumet St., where Wednesday’s press conference took place.
McIntosh said that for the past few weeks he has been talking to area gang members and gathering them in a safe and neutral place where they can talk to each other about their “beefs” in a non-violent setting.
The goal is to save one child at a time, McIntosh said.
“I grew up in a gang, so I understand the culture,” McIntosh said. “We’re trying our best to get a hold of our youth and get them together. So many times, people are afraid of them.”
McIntosh said he was a member of the Truman Street Bloods for 16 years.
“I’ve seen the violence first hand and I’ve been a part of the violence,” McIntosh said.
Children are killing each other because of the “silly, silly things” that one rapper says to another, one of the speakers said. McIntosh said the reason he is talking to youth is to try and guide them down a better path.
According to police, all five youths who were wounded at Village Creek Park in southeast Fort Worth on Sunday are expected to recover. The police department’s gang unit is investigating what led to the shooting in the park where more than 400 people had gathered Sunday evening, but no arrests have been announced.
This is not a new problem, McIntosh said.
“What we saw on Sunday was tragic and it has escalated to a point that I didn’t see even when I was in a gang,” McIntosh said.
The problem has gotten worse during the forced isolation implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus, said Judge Alex Kim, who presides over the juvenile court in Tarrant County.
“Just since this coronavirus lockdown started, we’ve had four juvenile murders come in,” Kim said. “We’re going at a faster pace during this than before this lockdown started. We usually have four to six juvenile murders in a year and already we’ve had four.”
None of the recent juvenile gun violence he’s seen in his court has been connected to gang activity, Kim said.
The court is there to support the parents, Kim said. Courts, law enforcement and Child Protective Services are not necessarily bad, are not the enemy and can provide resources that parents need, he said.
“Kimbo (the Tarrant County juvenile justice center) is not about punishing kids,” Kim said. “It’s about helping kids.”
Johnny Muhammad said he is working with young fathers, one as young as 12, who need help providing diapers, food and formula. Now, more of their girlfriends have discovered that they are 2 to 3 weeks pregnant.
“That’s what’s coming,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad cautioned against painting these teens who were at the park where the shooting occurred as villains. Some children do not understand social distancing, while others have not had to personally deal with the suffering the virus has caused in families.
Children hear the governor say that everything is open and we are back to business and they ask: “Why do I have to listen to anybody, anyway?” Muhammad said.
“With school being closed our children are going to meet and they will meet again,” Muhammad said. “They met two Sundays ago, about 300 of them, at Sycamore Park.”
In response to a question from one of the men in attendance, Precinct 8 Constable Michael Campbell said he would try to find out why law enforcement officers who were present at the gathering in Village Creek Park could not deescalate the situation before the gunfire began.
There were about five Fort Worth officers in the park in marked police vehicles, and some were using their public address systems and sirens to encourage the crowd to go somewhere else, police said in a news release. A police supervisor repeatedly ordered the crowd to leave the park using his public address system, the release said.
About 30 gunshots were fired and many ran, a scene captured by a police vehicle dashboard camera recording system, the release said. Officers quickly ran to the aid of those wounded and summoned emergency medical attention while other officers began searching for those involved, police said.
Melinda Hamilton, an activist who helped organize Wednesday’s event, said the group will meet again and continue to talk and help each other.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 2:49 PM.
