DAYTON — Dayton’s mayor is speaking out after two school-aged teens were shot and killed within a three-day span.
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17-year-old Adrien Totty died in a shooting near a playground in the middle of the Whitmore Arms Apartments off Midway Avenue Saturday night.
14-year-old Lizaiah Burdette died early Tuesday morning when he was left bleeding out in a car on Davis Avenue.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims said just one teen death from gun violence is one too many.
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“Just sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it just causes us more and more and more pain,” Mims said.
Mims also said the city can’t get his Violence Interruption Program up and running fast enough.
The program hopes to stop habitual criminals, but also work with young people like these victims.
“Training more and more of our young people to know how to identify and resolve conflict at its lowest level,” Mims said.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, the mayor said this is a community issue.
Community members like Ted Peeples hope the program can stop the trend of teen gun violence.
“We got to do a lot just to make these young people understand that there’s better things in life to do,” Peeples said.
Mims said the Violence Interruption Program has seen great results in places like Boston and New Orleans, with at least a 20 percent reduction in gun crimes everywhere it’s been used. He hopes they will soon put out requests for proposals from local companies to run the program here.
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