BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Two of the most prominent crime prevention organizations in Buffalo received a combined $219,000 from New York State to help aid them in their efforts to mitigate gun violence in the city.
Buffalo Peacemakers received $154,000 and Stop the Violence Coalition received $65,000.
"We're looking for boots on the ground," Pastor James Giles of Stop the Violence Coalition said. "The numbers (of shootings) has been an exponential growth in young people. I'm talking about 14, 15, 16 years old that are picking up guns. We're looking for boots on the ground that can go engage with them."
Buffalo is on pace to have the most number of yearly shootings in decades. There has already been more than 400 shootings in 2021 and 40 homicides. Buffalo is on pace for 90 murders this year, which is more than double what it was in 2017.
"Shooting deaths have risen by 200% in the last 15 months," New York State Senator Tim Kennedy said. "While we shake our heads at these statistics, it's easy to lose sight of what we're talking about here. These are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. Families that are now broken because of these senseless losses that will continue to mount."
Among the most notable of the shootings involves the killing of 3-year-old Shaquelle Walker Jr. who was riding a bicycle when he was shot and killed on July 5 on Donovan Drive.
Kennedy and other local state lawmakers are also calling for increased accountability for gun manufacturers.
"I think the people who are trafficking guns in our community see a market," Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples Stokes said. "We still live in a capitalistic society so people who go to Georgia or Ohio or Pennsylvania and fill their trunks up with weapons, they bring them right here to this community and they can go on any street corner and find a market for it. They know that. That market has to be shut down and the way to shut that market down is to make the people who are making those weapons responsible should they harm other people."
Listen to the entire news conference below:
