The count of gun homicides in the state this year now stands at 29, following the killings of two Milwaukee men this week. An African-American pastor wants his community to be more active in trying to stem the violence.
Milwaukee police say that on Monday night, 34-year-old Willie Shankle and 32-year old Darius Parker were shot to death, in what police say was not a random act. The apparent double-murder of the black men comes amid other fatal and non-fatal shootings in the city, many of African-Americans.
At a prayer breakfast this week, Baptist Pastor Mose Fuller said blacks must demand more action to stop the violence, including more from themselves.
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“We have got to hold this community accountable!” Fuller said. “If I knew who did it, I would turn them in! That’s the bottom line. Now we can show up at these meetings and pretend that we’re going to do something, but the hard work … is this: we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable.”
Joyce Ellwanger of Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), helps lead prayer vigils at the site of homicides. She says many African-Americans are already working to reduce gun violence through youth, school and jobs programs.
Ellwanger says some people living in violent neighborhoods are afraid to speak up, “but there are ways to work with the police without having to have your name associated.
“We try, in our MICAH core team, to get that word out in our agenda,” she continued. “Every week it tells you how to contact the police and what to do if you don’t want them to come to your house or have your name used.”
Ellwanger and seven other MICAH members held a sidewalk prayer vigil Thursday for the two men gunned down on Monday.
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