• PHOTOS: Crowd gathers to march against gun violence in Springfield
“I am continuing to fight for generations here and hope that we continue to build for the next generation,” Green said to the crowd.
“We are the footwork and we can continue to do this,” Mollett said.
Many of the marchers wore orange shirts with the words “END GUN VIOLENCE” on them.
Springfield has seen a larger number of shooting homicides this year, with seven shot and killed in the first five months of the year, compared to 11 in 2023 and six in 2024.
This includes the shooting death of Randy Graham, 31, on May 14, followed by the death of 16-year-old De’Meko Taborn later the same day.
The city recently had to pause a formal effort to curb gun violence after the federal government canceled most of a $1.6 million gun violence prevention grant. Springfield had already invested almost $400,000 of that money in planning and efforts to launch street outreach since the grant was awarded in 2023.
Caleb Perkins, Clark County gun violence prevention coordinator, told city commissioners in February that the group planned to use four strategies to address gun violence in the city, including coordinating with existing programs for mentoring, developing a violence interrupter program, designing a youth center and creating pathways to get the community involved in the process.
Many of these steps mirror ones taken by the city of Dayton in partnership with a group called Cure Violence Global, which said that key reasons for shootings and other violence include drug sales and interpersonal conflicts.
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