Community members walk to site of Pittsburgh mass shooting
By: Andy Sheehan and Erika Stanish/KDKA-TV News
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Faith-based communities on the North Side met Wednesday to find solutions to youth violence and then walked en masse to the site of Sunday's mass shooting.
Community members say they're broken-hearted about the gun violence that took two lives and wounded nine others and vowed to come together to stop it.
About 200 community members assembled at the Allegheny Center Alliance Church for some soul-searching about the tragedy and the gun violence gripping the young throughout the region.
Speakers spoke about the gun violence that has claimed the lives of dozens of teenagers in the region in the past two years, culminating in the mass shooting in East Allegheny, but they also looked for solutions, followed by a prayer walk to the site of the mass shooting.
"There's brokenness around us. There's pain all around us. So we first acknowledge that. We ask for forgiveness," said Rev. Jerrel Gilliam with Light of Life Rescue Mission.
The consensus is the need to reach out to at-risk youth and their families, giving them the emotional support to turn their lives around.
"We're just here to come up with a neighborhood solution with everyone working together to address the violence that's going on in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas," said Reggie Good, an outreach worker with Reach, which tries to intervene in disputes before the violence happens.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert was also there. He has said the police are committed to stopping the violence but cannot do it alone and the entire community must be involved.
"This is what it's all about. We need to come together as a community and work together, and you see and hear the frustration. People want to live in a safe community and we've got to get these shooters off their street," Schubert said.
Residents who live nearby said what remains is still a reminder of how much worse it could have been. A man who owns an office across the street from where the party was held said a woman was sleeping in her bedroom when a bullet shot through her bedroom window.
Other buildings and cars were hit, too.
"It's horrifying and scary," said one person who lies nearby.
The Gainey administration is talking about a concerted approach to gun violence but the consensus is to be responsible for your individual community and reach out to the people on your street.