Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Where would the City of Buffalo be without the continued support of anti-violence groups and compassionate members of the community?
The community continues to show support and provide resources to the family who lost their 3-year-old son, brother and grandson, Ramone Carter, who was shot and killed while riding his tricycle alongside his 7-year-old sister in the City of Buffalo on Friday during a family function near the intersection of Domedion Avenue and Heminway Street.
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"We are broken. As a community, we are truly broken," says Leonard Lane of the Buffalo FATHERS, his group coming to the aid of the family on Monday afternoon.
"Just this random act of shooting. It just It was truly horrific, within our community, within our neighborhood, and to strike a three-year-old, makes it so much more traumatizing, not only for for this family, who have five other siblings, but also for the community who are still grieving from the last mass shooting, that happened a couple of miles away."
Lane referencing the TOPS mass shooting on Jefferson Avenue, which happened just over two years ago just a few miles southwest of Domedion Avenue.
Lane knows the feeling of losing a loved one so new to life, his 20-month-old granddaughter struck by a car on Fernhill Avenue less than 10 years ago, he knows that when situations like this happen in the city, the Buffalo Strong community need to show their support.
"We've been here just trying to find resources, not just for this family, but this community that's undeserved. What we need to do is bring much needed resources, not just to this family, but his entire community, and let them know that we care for them, we love them."
On Saturday, many members of the community came to show their support for the family with a prayer vigil, which included the presence of community outreach and anti-violence groups showing their support, including members of the Most Valuable Parents (MVP) of Buffalo, which the mother of Carter is a proud member of, and the Buffalo Peacemakers, who continue to be a valuable resource to families with children of all ages.
Pastor James Giles of both Peacemakers and MVP of Buffalo notes that the works of these groups stopping violence through simple education and conversation have done an good job at curbing tragedies, however more resources are needed.
"We need to get more resources for these groups that are doing this direct engagement with this very element that would dare pick up a gun and shoot somebody and dare take another person. We got people were good people out doing that. Stopping individual interfering or interrupting that process. You know, I can't tell you the number of lives we talk people down from wanting to hurt or harm another person.
But also, Giles feels the illegal and automatic guns on the street are another issue that need to be addressed. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown on Saturday says he wants to see illegal guns finally get off the streets in the city and is once again asking members of Congress to pass some common sense legislation.
"We just have way too many guns on our city street," noted Giles. "And I'm not sure what the system itself is going to do to address that. But we got to find a way to remove these automatic weapons that are designed to kill multiple people in a very short period of time."