KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following a violent weekend in KCMO featuring multiple shootings and two deaths, a member of a local anti-violence group called on neighbors and other community organizations to come together and promote peace.
The city saw two separate triple shootings in a matter of hours over the weekend, one of which killed a teenage boy.
“When our youth are being gunned down as much and as frequently as they are, it makes it seem just a little bit sadder to me,” said Marcus Blockmon, a member of the “War Cry” anti-violence group. “To see them not getting that chance to just live their lives, it just really bothers me.”
After seeing a family member die from violence, Blockmon knows the impact of neighborhood tragedies.
Years after War Cry was founded in the metro, he told 41 Action News that he hoped to raise more awareness of violence and the efforts to stop it in the city.
“If we come together first then we can make a difference,” he said. “I see more of after-the-fact then I do preventative measures.”
With Kansas City already seeing almost a dozen homicides this year, Blockmon said other anti-violence groups needed to join forces and work together to promote peace in the streets.
Furthermore, he said volunteers were needed to head out to neighborhoods and speak with communities at risk of seeing crime.
“The police and city officials can’t do it all by themselves,” he said. “We have to get out and waive our signs before it happens, stand in some of these bad neighborhoods and talk to people.”
Moving forward, he said the weekend crimes in the city were a reminder of the immediacy to start making a difference.
“Triple homicides, in a matter of the timeframe it happened, mean it’s getting very critical now,” he said.
