PEORIA, Ill. – Community members in South Peoria are frustrated by the recent rash of shootings in the area.
Three shootings have occurred in South Peoria since Wednesday evening. An adult male was found deceased with gunshot wounds at around 10:20 A.M. Thursday in a house in the area of Helen and George Streets. Just after 9:00 A.M. Thursday, two adult males were sent to the hospital after a shooting in the area of Antoinette and Madison Park Terrace. On Wednesday evening, six people were sent to the hospital after a mass shooting in the area of Westmoreland and W. Marquette.
Charles Morris is a South Peoria resident, and says the shootings are making people “fearful.”
“They can’t have they kids out here, playing in the yards, playing in the parks, yes, the neighborhoods, the communities are fearful,” Morris said. “They need help.”
Morris believes current programs the city has to try and curb violence does not work because the youth are not hearing it, or are aware of it.
He says he’s looking to start a program to help spread a message of anti-violence, adding that it might be more effective hearing it come from someone like him.
Clara Underwood-Forman is a pastor at Potter’s House International in South Peoria. She says part of the problem is people are becoming “numb” to gun violence.
“It has happened so many times. There was a time when there was total outrage when someone was killed or murdered. But now, y’know, you say ‘Someone was killed last night’, and it’s ‘Oh really’. And that’s it. And so we’ve become numb to this, and we cannot do that,” Underwood-Forman said.
Underwood-Forman says people need to start coming together again and reaching out to young people to help get guns off the streets.
She says people need to value life again, and think about the impact and consequences before picking up a gun and taking a life.
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