HARRISBURG, Pa. — As police in Harrisburg investigate three shootings that injured multiple people in the city over the weekend, the larger community is stepping up to curb the ongoing violent crime.
Lamont Jones, a Harrisburg native who knows the streets of downtown well, helped organize the event along with other leaders from the L.O.O.P. Boyz & Girlz program.
"There's too many people dying today, [and] there's too much violence," Jones said outside the Allison Hill Community Center. "I think there's suppressed anger, and we have to give them better ways to vent."
Data shows the number of homicides so far this year is already close to what the city of Harrisburg saw in all of 2021. Jones hopes that, by mentoring and teaching kids in the community about the true tragedy of gun violence, change may be possible.
“To show them...this is what violence really looks like, this isn’t TV, this isn’t a video game – you don’t get to come back," said Jones.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dale Dangleben, a trauma surgeon with Holy Spirit Hospital, saw the violence of the weekend firsthand.
"I was on call the last three nights, and I saw four of the victims out of Harrisburg, and one was a 12-year-old bystander," Dangleben said. "That really brings things home when your own children are not safe playing in their own neighborhood."
He believes the solution to the violence has to come from within the home and the larger community.
"We must come together to be a community...and fix this problem," said Dangleben. "We cannot just say 'Rest in peace.' We cannot just say a prayer. It goes beyond that."
14-year-old Delvion Williams says that problem of violence has now come to his doorstep.
“It weighs on my mom," Williams said. "She gets cautious about things and certain places we go."
Williams said, while he doesn't see the problem among his own friends, he knows it's there in his city: “If I see something going on and if I've been to that area – yeah I'll be pretty scared sometimes."