Hours before I began my first official day as the gun violence solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, I read a Facebook post about a fatal shooting a few blocks from my Clarke Square home.
According to Milwaukee police, a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed Sunday around 7:30 p.m. on South 24th Street and West Greenfield Avenue.
I was home at the time but didn’t hear a thing. No gunshots, an ambulance, fire truck or a police siren. If it wasn’t for the Facebook post I wouldn’t have known that a woman had just tragically lost her life to gun violence.
Sadly, gun violence is a daily occurrence in Milwaukee where in 2023, the city recorded 172 homicides and 837 nonfatal shootings, according to crime statistics from the Milwaukee Police Department. In 2022, a record-setting year for bloodshed that most of us will never forget, there were 215 murders and 876 nonfatal shootings.
My hopes as a reporter
As the gun violence solutions reporter for NNS, one of my goals is to better understand the root causes of gun violence in Milwaukee and other cities, and what can and is being done to prevent it. I’ll be talking to violence prevention experts, public health officers and elected officials, grassroots groups, residents and others, including victims and perpetrators of gun violence, to learn more and report about the challenges we face.
I’m planning to take a deep look at the collateral impact of gun violence on those who’ve lost family members, friends and even children that lost classmates.
I want to learn from the people living with injuries and financial challenges caused by guns and from children and others who suffer from trauma because of excessive exposure to violence.
I plan to look at the impact of policy, the role and actions of our police departments and other institutions and will keep an open ear for your thoughts and solutions.
Back to the scene
As I reflected on the uphill challenge of finding solutions to prevent gun violence, I decided to head to the block where the 37-year-old woman was killed on Sunday night.
Rather than a crime scene, flowers and balloons or family members or friends of the victim trying to make sense of it all, I came across only a solitary piece of yellow police tape wrapped around a concrete pole.
The evidence of this tragedy disappeared literally overnight. This is the reality in a community that can sometimes seem numb to gun violence.
Numbed, that is, until it reaches our loved ones, like it did my family when my cousin and his friend were both shot in July. Thankfully, they both lived, although I’m sure both feel a little less safe in our city.
This is the challenge we face. I’m ready to take it on with the support of my community and my newsroom. I’m ready to help find solutions and make my city a safer place to live and raise a family. I thank you, our readers, for the opportunity.
Connect with me
I can’t wait to hear from you. Feel free to send me an email.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
