Green spoke about his family and criminal history with gun violence.
Green’s father, Derrick Fudge, was shot and killed along with eight other people on Aug. 4, 2019, when a gunman opened fire in Dayton’s Oregon District.
Green later founded the nonprofit Fudge Foundation to honor his father’s memory, support survivors of trauma and working to prevent violence.
Green also serves on the board of Felons with a Future, a nonprofit that assists people with criminal records to reintegrate into society, according to the Fudge Foundation website.
He is also on the board of Upturn Ohio, a nonprofit that helps communities “communities emerge from poverty and thrive,” in particular focusing on communities in Springfield, the website said.
“I am continuing to fight for generations here and hope that we continue to build for the next generation,” Green said to the crowd.
Mollett spoke about the shooting deaths of her brother and one of their young cousins, saying that she tells her own children that if they see a gun in a hour to run away.
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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