Reducing youth violence remains priority for Dayton mayor following recent shootings

DAYTON — Over the last week, investigators have had plenty of violence to deal with, especially violence involving young people.

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In the middle of the day on Sunday, minors broke into a man’s home resulting in him shooting one of them, leaving them in serious condition.

The next day, a shooting with a young victim happened outside a cellphone store near the RTA hub in downtown Dayton. The suspected shooting taken into custody is 18 years old.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims said the community has to reduce violence involving young people. He also said that adults are often to blame just as much as teens for gun violence involving young people.

“Some adults are not locking the guns up to the point where they’re not accessible to young people, especially in those situations,” Mims said.

Mustafa Ibrahim said he’s tired of seeing violence involving young people. He knows young people must feel they have a good future to actively turn away from violence.

“I’ve also seen it on Instagram,” Ibrahim said. “They just think that they’re cool now, they think it’s the new trendy way to bring out the guns and all that.”

Mims said bringing down youth violence is a priority.

“It’s such a priority because they are the ones that depend on adults for good leadership,” Mims said.

News Center 7 also asked Mims about the gun violence interruption programs he’s working to bring to the city. He said it is still in the assessment stage. Soon the information gathered will be used to launch a request for proposal process to pick a company that will bring their program to Dayton.

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