Boston city leaders searching for ways to stop violence after three people killed in two days

It’s an all-hands-on deck approach to get the violence in Boston under control.

City leaders are teaming up with the faith-based community to come up with solutions after a violent weekend in Boston.

“We’re not only responding to violence, we are also responding to the fear of violence at the same time,” says Kendra Lara, Boston City Councilor.

Three people killed in Boston in just two days has city leaders teaming up with churches to find ways to stop the shootings, but despite the recent murders, Boston Police Commissioner, Michael Cox isn’t calling it an uptick in crime.

“Our shootings are actually down, they are not up, but the reality is there is a lot more younger people under 18 doing this stuff,” says Commissioner Cox.

That conclusion does little to console Jo Jo Ashley. Her friend 33-year-old Jasmine Burrell was murdered at the Soma Apartments in Mattapan on Sunday. Her killer remains on the run.

“Jasmine is peaceful. Anytime you see her, she has nothing but a smile. It’s always as soon as you change your life, it gets taken from you,” says Ashley.

It’s people like Ashley, the city has in mind when strategizing on how to help people grieving their murdered loved ones.

“There was a lot of conversation around trauma response and the need to ensure that we are touching every single person, every student who might be impacted by recent events,” says Mayor Wu.

Tuesday’s meeting presented some long-term plans on how to make Boston safer. As for what’s being done right now to give people a sense of peace, this is what Mayor Wu had to say.

“In this moment there is a tremendous amount of work happening to ensure accountability in each incident to have the investigations result in very immediate results. It’s been remarkable how quickly some of these situations have ended up with accountability attached to a particular incident of violence,” says Mayor Wu.

The recent murders remain unsolved. If you have any information, Boston Police would like your help by anonymously calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1(800) 494-TIPS.

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