Small protest targets violence in Detroit

Small protest targets violence in Detroit

A group of mostly young people fed up with the toll of gun violence on Detroit took to the streets to protest today on the city’s east side.
Many of the youths work with Detroit’s Neighborhood Service Organization on programs aimed at preventing gun violence, substance abuse and other social ills among young people and were stunned to learn that the brutality had hit close to home.
A 15-year-old girl involved with the NSO’s youth initiatives program lost her 19-year-old brother to gunfire Saturday in Detroit, said Tavarus Lewis, 17, a peer educator in the program. The girl lives a couple of blocks from where the group was protesting.
“We’re out here supporting her and trying to stop the gun violence in the community,” Lewis said as he and others held up signs and drivers passing by honked their horns on Mack Avenue near Yorkshire.
“We’re all pretty close,” Lewis said of the young people in the NSO group. “When we promote for it not to happen and it happens, it hurts.”
“This happened to someone close to us, so we were shocked and saddened,” added Gaoia Vang, 17, also a youth program peer educator. “It sucks. It totally sucks.”
The protest came after a 13-year-old girl in a separate incident was shot in the head in an altercation when a group of people in a car threw gang taunts and then opened fire on about four or five friends walking near 7 Mile and Ryan in Detroit on Wednesday night.
Detroit Police said they were still investigating the shooting, and the girl was in critical condition today at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit.
Protester Tyrone Owens, 49, of Harper Woods said he was there to stand up against gun violence that’s sending a chill through the city.
“It’s very shocking and it’s senseless,” Owens said. “It’s got to stop.”
Contact MATT HELMS: driving@freepress.com.