FORT WORTH, Texas — As family and friends prepare to remember the Fourth of July Fort Worth shooting victims, some community leaders have started talks about how to prevent future deadly shootings.
Reverend Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. serves as the president of the Ministers Justice Coalition. The organization hosted a community meeting Thursday to address the recent gun violence that left several dead or injured.
"Five died, two babies, one 15-month and one four years old. If that doesn't grip your heart, I don't know. What else could," Rev. Tatum said, "It's going to have to be with the black community and the black church coming together to solve this problem."
On July 4 police found two people killed and several others injured near Castleman Street and Wiman Drive.
In a separate shooting, police say a 26-year-old man was injured by gunfire when he shot 5 people killing two young sisters and an adult man at a fireworks gathering.
Brother Johnny Muhammad fears that so many shootings have happened that people are growing numb to it and will accept it as something that is supposed to happen.
"This ain't normal, young and normal, but it's become a norm. We are just going about our business and we have lost two babies," Muhammad said.
The clergy-led meeting drew leaders from several anti-violence organizations. Pastor Rodney McIntosh stressed the same violence has happened back-to-back years in Fort Worth.
Pastor Rodney McIntosh started working to reduce gun violence in Fort Worth at least five years ago. During the meeting, he stressed that the recent gun violence did not involve gang activity but more so domestic violence. McIntosh believes identifying the type of gun violence is key to strategizing a community plan.
"Some of it was domestic violence and then some of it is just senseless gun violence. So the question is not is their strategy going to work to reduce gun violence in our community," McIntosh said.
Other community leaders also weighed in like Diane Ossenkop and her team from Moms Demand Action. One of their goals includes raising awareness of gun safety for gun owners, especially adults who own weapons with children in the home.
"Every time something like that happens, it hits us very hard," said Ossenkop, "We provide grants for community intervention, violence, intervention, intervention programs like the ones we talked about here."
Ossenkop hopes to be part of future planning with local clergy that will stop the kind of gun violence that cost two young innocent sisters their lives.