CLEVELAND — On Thursday, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb outlined the city's plan for summer safety and reducing crime that seems to rise as temperatures do. But in the two days following that press conference, the city has seen a rash of gun violence, some deadly.
A 40-year-old man and a 43-year-old man were killed in two separate shootings on Thursday, one that happened on Harvard Avenue and the other on Carnegie Avenue at a car wash.
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On Friday, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed on Lakeshore Boulevard and Villa Beach Drive. A 24-year-old man was shot and killed around the same time in a shooting that occurred on Union Avenue.
Additionally, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old were injured in a shooting that occurred East 147th Street Friday afternoon. Later that evening, a 30-year-old man was injured in a shooting that occurred on East 131st Street.
Bibb, on Thursday, addressed the already-rising crime rates that the city has been experiencing leading into the summer season.
“This year, the numbers aren’t where I want them to be. I think all of us are outraged by the level of violence that we see on our streets,” the mayor said.
Now, other city leaders, like Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, are also sounding off about the rash of gun violence.
"It’s a huge, huge worry for me, as well as for my residents, dealing with this crime," Conwell said. "Guns everywhere. I mean, everywhere. You have young children—12 and 13-year-olds with guns—and that's not good. They're missing school and they're walking around in the community with guns. That's not good at all."
The city has been behind the launch of programs, like those announced by the Urban League of Greater Cleveland—My Brother's Keeper and Saving Our Daughters.
Conwell is in full support of those plans but believes it will need to be an "all hands on deck" situation to address the gun violence in Cleveland. He wants to see community presence from officers and a strengthening of trust between residents and law enforcement.
For him, the most important thing is putting those plans into action—and quickly.
"We need all hands on deck. We need to bring in the Sheriff's Department in the city of Cleveland. We also need to reach out to the governor to make sure we have highway patrol officers riding the community as well," Conwell said. "We need all hands on deck. All hands on deck. The plan is okay, but it's the execution of the plan and monitoring and controlling to make sure that the plan will be working."
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