Two days after gunfire on Cincinnati streets that resembled Chicago gangland shootings during Prohibition 100 years ago, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval lashed out.”It infuriates me,” he said. “That should never happen in our city. It should never happen anywhere.”The bullets from two weapons in a passing car wounded three children and one adult, sending other people on the street at the time scampering for cover.”It doesn’t look like Cincinnati,” Pureval said. “It’s absolutely terrifying. And that’s why we’ve got to fix it.”Although violent crime in Cincinnati is trending down year to date, youth violence is persistently going up.In an interview Friday afternoon, Pureval said the inability to resolve disputes without firing bullets at one another is one reason.Quick access to guns, he said, is another.”I just did a town hall, a roundtable, with some kids in our public high schools and I asked them how easy is it for you to get a gun? And to a person, they said I can text someone in my phone right now and get a gun in thirty minutes,” Pureval said. As a result of Wednesday’s gunfire, the city is increasing police visibility in certain areas like Grant Park and adding more bike patrols.A total of $2 million will be awarded next week, specifically to organizations dealing with youth violence.But he said the effort needs broad community buy-in.”It will not be as impactful as possible unless we are all working for the same mission. All of us. The police, the community leaders, the parents, the kids themselves. All of us have to prioritize public safety in order for it to work,” Pureval said. The mayor knows city government is up against a disconnect.”But it’s on all of us to make sure that we’re creating the opportunities where kids feel comfortable coming to us, telling adults what’s going on in order to prevent the violence,” he said.He apologized for the violence at the tail end of Resource Day in Grant Park Friday afternoon.He played basketball with the kids.He met a woman who told him how her nephew was shot and killed in the vicinity of the park about three years ago.He thanked everyone for being there.When asked if the gunfire the other day was targeted or random, he said police did not know yet but that it was almost beyond the point as far as he was concerned.”If you are shooting a weapon in broad daylight at a targeted or not targeted person, it doesn’t matter. Our kids are getting shot in our streets. The reason or the cause is immaterial at that point. As soon as you start pulling a trigger and as soon as you start hitting kids, I really don’t care why you’re doing it. We’re going to put you in jail forever,” Pureval said. The mayor said he does not want the children he was with out at Grant Park today to be afraid or to be in jeopardy when a car passes by and someone sticks his hand out the window, spraying the street with bullets.He’ll be in Columbus tomorrow with other mayors from around the country to exchange ideas about gun violence on city streets.He was asked about the challenge of identifying and reaching youth who are armed and inclined to fire indiscriminately. “It’s very hard,” the mayor said. “There’s not one way to get to a child who is so desperate, so angry, so confused that they turn to a gun rather than to a job or to a book.”
Two days after gunfire on Cincinnati streets that resembled Chicago gangland shootings during Prohibition 100 years ago, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval lashed out.
“It infuriates me,” he said. “That should never happen in our city. It should never happen anywhere.”
The bullets from two weapons in a passing car wounded three children and one adult, sending other people on the street at the time scampering for cover.
“It doesn’t look like Cincinnati,” Pureval said. “It’s absolutely terrifying. And that’s why we’ve got to fix it.”
Although violent crime in Cincinnati is trending down year to date, youth violence is persistently going up.
In an interview Friday afternoon, Pureval said the inability to resolve disputes without firing bullets at one another is one reason.
Quick access to guns, he said, is another.
“I just did a town hall, a roundtable, with some kids in our public high schools and I asked them how easy is it for you to get a gun? And to a person, they said I can text someone in my phone right now and get a gun in thirty minutes,” Pureval said.
As a result of Wednesday’s gunfire, the city is increasing police visibility in certain areas like Grant Park and adding more bike patrols.
A total of $2 million will be awarded next week, specifically to organizations dealing with youth violence.
But he said the effort needs broad community buy-in.
“It will not be as impactful as possible unless we are all working for the same mission. All of us. The police, the community leaders, the parents, the kids themselves. All of us have to prioritize public safety in order for it to work,” Pureval said.
The mayor knows city government is up against a disconnect.
“But it’s on all of us to make sure that we’re creating the opportunities where kids feel comfortable coming to us, telling adults what’s going on in order to prevent the violence,” he said.
He apologized for the violence at the tail end of Resource Day in Grant Park Friday afternoon.
He played basketball with the kids.
He met a woman who told him how her nephew was shot and killed in the vicinity of the park about three years ago.
He thanked everyone for being there.
When asked if the gunfire the other day was targeted or random, he said police did not know yet but that it was almost beyond the point as far as he was concerned.
“If you are shooting a weapon in broad daylight at a targeted or not targeted person, it doesn’t matter. Our kids are getting shot in our streets. The reason or the cause is immaterial at that point. As soon as you start pulling a trigger and as soon as you start hitting kids, I really don’t care why you’re doing it. We’re going to put you in jail forever,” Pureval said.
The mayor said he does not want the children he was with out at Grant Park today to be afraid or to be in jeopardy when a car passes by and someone sticks his hand out the window, spraying the street with bullets.
He’ll be in Columbus tomorrow with other mayors from around the country to exchange ideas about gun violence on city streets.
He was asked about the challenge of identifying and reaching youth who are armed and inclined to fire indiscriminately.
“It’s very hard,” the mayor said. “There’s not one way to get to a child who is so desperate, so angry, so confused that they turn to a gun rather than to a job or to a book.”
