DALLAS — Police were back on foot patrol on Monday after another busy weekend involving gun violence in Dallas.
“It’s sad,” said Tammy Burns.
“It’s sickening,” neighbor Ashley Gatlin chimed in.
The East Dallas neighbors live a few feet away from the Juanita Craft Recreation Center in East Dallas. From their steps, a small memorial of red balloons and candles remained from the weekend. The women described it as a haunting reminder of the senseless shooting that happened during a community block party on Saturday. The shooting left Cerriante Green, 18, dead. Two other people were injured.
“I’m tired of it,” Burns said.
“It’s definitely going to get worse by the summertime,” Gatlin fears.
The neighbors say they are concerned, knowing violent crimes continue increasing across the City of Dallas.
On Monday, family and friends attended the funeral of Lancaster High School student Tony Evans Jr. The teen was shot and killed at a hotel in Dallas last week.
Gun violence is also keeping police busy. On Monday afternoon, neighborhood patrol officers were walking the area near Holmes and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. They were talking to neighbors in the area where a woman was shot and killed by an unidentified gunman early Sunday morning.
“The crime rates go up every summer. It goes up. So, just think about this summer, we are a little bit more open, because last summer we wasn’t that open, because of the coronavirus, right. Now we are back open. Fully open,” Gatlin said.
As the shootings and killings continue, more neighbors are speaking out.
“I’m very pissed off about what’s going on,” said Antong Lucky, the president of Urban Specialists in Dallas.
He and other community advocates held a press conference Sunday about curbing senseless violence.
”No longer are we going to stand by. We tried to play nice,” said Tabitha Wheeler, a business owner and South Dallas-Fair Park Task Force member.
Community advocates say they have been engaging with neighbors and working with police to provide programs and resources in vulnerable areas.
As homicides and aggravated assaults continue increasing across the city, neighbors are saying enough is enough.
“If you’re not going to help us create that atmosphere of family, we are going to start turning you in,” Wheeler explained.