MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — City leaders in Milledgeville are talking about plans to address the uptick in crime and gun violence. It comes after a shooting at a block party on Leo and Noble Court left five people wounded early Sunday morning.
13WMAZ reporter Jessica Cha explains how a neighboring community is inspiring Milledgeville city leaders on ways to combat violence.
"This shooting was strictly gang-affiliated,” says Police Chief Dray Swicord.
He says that the party was planned for months on social media and more than a thousand people were at a block party there. He says officers were patrolling nearby when the shooting happened.
"We were riding through the actual, individual party right up to the time we got the call to the actual party,” he says.
Swicord says shootings in that neighborhood happen from time to time, but gun violence has been on the rise nationwide.
"It's the people that are affiliated with gangs, or gangs themselves that has become a norm in their neighborhoods,” he says. “It's sickening that these groups of people don't care for life itself.”
He says city officials have been talking about addressing the violence.
“Talked to faith-based people, NAACP. I mean, everyone has a solution sitting at the table – certainly, I have not seen that go forward where we've been seeing a decrease in what we've been seeing,” Swicord says.
Robin Stack has lived in Milledgeville for the past five years. She says she grew up around gun-violence.
"It is happening to someone's friends and someone's coworkers and someone's family,” she says.
She says something must be done about it.
"It's becoming a part of a larger picture that's really being terrible for our community. People feel like, as long as it's in a certain part of town, it's not going to affect them. However, it will and it can, and the only way that we can make the community better is to help out,” Stack says.
Milledgeville City Manager Hank Griffeth says that the city is working on a plan to come up with potential crime initiatives, similar to Macon-Bibb's Macon Violence Prevention (MVP) program. The city will be funding this strategic plan.
Swicord says investigators believe there was more than one shooter at this weekend's block party.
If you have any information on the case, you can call Macon Regional CrimeStoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.