SOUTH TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — Local leaders are issuing a stark warning to the community about the dangers of gun violence after multiple shootings this week.
With Florida A&M University set to play its first game since the shooting, local leaders are making sure their messaging is clear: end gun violence.
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Food vendor Darrin Rogers has been selling on Perry Street for more than 20 years. He says over those years, the environment has changed.
"They've been fighting pretty much for the last three years and disturbing the peace, disturbing the groove, disturbing the cycle of homecoming," Rogers said.
A fight led up to Saturday's mass shooting, which left 11 people shot.
"It does need to stop. The young people steady destroying their lives, and should be more like patient or filled with the spirit, et cetera, et cetera,” Rogers said. “They need to just really calm it down. They need to stop fighting and fussing about little things.”
Rogers' sentiments were echoed at the Tallahassee Urban League's Gun Violence Prevention Rally Friday, after nearly a week of back-to-back shootings.
The organization invited law enforcement and city and county commissioners, and those leaders shared what needs to happen on a larger scale in the community to prevent it, including addressing parenting, teen behavior and the importance of a “village.”
"We're not going to fix it if we as a community don't come together and be a unified force. We can't be on opposite ends of the spectrum on this. We’ve got to communicate with each other,” Tallahassee Police Department Detective Justin Hill said.
"We need to reach our children at the earliest of ages. We need to be engaging them early on, making sure they know how to read, making sure they have the resources around them,” Shonda Knight, the Senior Executive Director of Community Affairs and Re-entry at Leon County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Leaders even went as far as visualizing the consequences of gun violence, driving from the Urban League office to Perry Street in hearses and Corvettes to emulate a funeral procession.
"If you want to be bad boy, pants down on your butt, thugs, drugs, gun violence, you just mind end up in one of those cars there,” Tallahassee Urban League President and CEO Curtis Taylor said.
The rally ended with a prayer for the community as festivities start back up this weekend.
Rogers says he's only slightly worried to sell but is leaning on his faith.
"It doesn't really bother us, you know, not to where we'll stay home – not when there's money to be made, friends to meet, and we'd be here for our main loyal customers, too, because they still come back,” Rogers said.
Florida A&M University plays Southern University Saturday.
The university is taking precautions of its own, closing all campus tailgate lots at 8 p.m., while the Tallahassee Police Department will increase its presence and lighting on Perry Street.
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