Clergy, Officials Urge Gunfire-Free New Year's Eve
DETROIT (AP) — Ministers, police and politicians have come together to urge Detroit residents to forgo the dangerous local custom of firing guns into the air on New Year's Eve.
The Rev. Nicholas Hood III hosted Monday's announcement of the 17th annual campaign called "Ring in the New Year with a Bell, Not a Bang."
Detroit police Chief James Craig, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, Deputy Mayor Ike McKinnon and four ministers joined Hood at Plymouth Church of Christ.
Hood started the bell-ringing effort after Sandra Latham was killed in 1997 by a stray bullet while sitting in her dining room. Latham's relatives attended Monday's program.
Napoleon says he's donating 200 gun safety locks, and organizers say they're launching a campaign to make the Mother's Day weekend a gun-violence free holiday.
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