Brooklyn Center Residents Stepping Up During Crisis: 'There's An Energy Around This Community'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Brooklyn Center is being put in a national spotlight, and that's bringing out the best in many who live there.
Longkee Vang is a youth program coordinator at Brooklyn Center High School.
"There's an energy around this community," Vang said.
Vang, along with Tashawna Williams, is helping organize a community resource center that's sprung up at the high school in the last two days. With many stores closed, Williams says they've served about 1,000 families, all through donations.
"We've been doing this work. It's just something that we had to upscale during this time," Williams said.
At Daunte Wright's memorial site, the work's being done by creating space for people to share, grieve and heal as one.
Montrell Bond and Vineeta Gladney are trauma nurses who attended a healing event Tuesday because they wanted to do their part outside the walls of their hospital.
"I have a kid who's the same age as Daunte," Gladney said. "Twenty-year-old boys don't always think, and things happen. And that does not give [police] the right to kill them. It doesn't equal a death sentence."
People who spoke at the event once again called for more police accountability. One person suggested holding everyone on an officer's shift responsible for mistakes.
Many also questioned why former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter was allowed to resign.
"I can't mistake one medication for another," Gladney said. "We all make mistakes, we have accidents. I get that and sympathize with that, but at the same time you're playing with somebody's life."
Williams shared her idea of progress Tuesday. She said she just wanted a sense of togetherness in the community, something she and everyone else at the resource center is helping to foster.
