Source: Photo: Donnie Burgess
INDIANAPOLIS — The leader of Indy’s Ten Point Coalition is sick and tired of people moving on after a child and/or teenager is killed.
Serenity Wilson lost her life at the age of 16 this week after being shot at a block party Monday. Dozens more people have been shot, some killed, over the last few weeks. Many of those killings have been at a typical party or gathering.
The silence from elected officials and community leaders is frustrating for Reverend Charles Harrison.
“I’ve been looking for elected officials, I’ve been looking for candidates who are running for public office, who tend to have a lot to say about a lot of other stuff, but when it comes to our children being gunned down, there seems to be a lot of silence in our community,” Rev. Harrison said Wednesday in a Twitter video.
Three people were shot at the canal in downtown Indianapolis just after midnight Wednesday.
Harrison doesn’t buy the crime-statistics narrative from certain Indy leaders, “quit telling me that things are getting better out here when I know the reality as a father. I can’t let my children go to certain events because I am fearful that something bad is going to happen.”
After three people were killed in a shooting in Broad Ripple two weeks ago, Mayor Joe Hogsett held a press conference alongside IMPD Police Chief Randal Taylor, blaming Indiana’s gun laws and bad business owners for not maintaining their properties. The Broad Ripple Village Association requested “Gun Free Zone” permits for the area, and several businesses have opted to close at 1 a.m., despite that being a valuable money-making timeframe.
Rev. Harrison says until public officials actually start addressing violent crime, murders will go unsolved.
“For every parent out there, this could be your child if we don’t say something or do something.”
