There was no broad agreement. One group that was not mentioned? The people who actually chose to pull the trigger.
Regardless that leaves the city struggling with how to address the problem, just as it lost $1.2 million in federal violence prevention funding.
So where from here?
All homicides this year involve guns
Much of the city’s violence, particularly homicides, involves shootings. There have been seven homicides so far this year, with three occurring in the same week last month — all shootings.
Springfield saw higher numbers of homicides from 2021 to 2023 (9, then 8, then 11), before a drop to 6 in 2024, followed by a rise in 2025 (already 7 in just five months).
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
“I don’t believe the answer to this issue of our children shooting other children is as simple as some propose and that is, simply arm everybody. I do not believe that’s the answer that will serve our community well; I feel very strongly about it,” Assistant Mayor Dave Estrop said at Tuesday’s city commission meeting. “But yet that’s what we’re being told here in Ohio and what we’re being told at the national level. ‘Arm everybody.’ My God, we’ll go back to the old west of the 1860s. That’s outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.”
Recent shootings in Springfield
Most recently, Aryah Mobley, 21, was indicted on murder and aggravated burglary charges in connection with a fatal shooting May 20. Mobley was not the shooter, according to police. Sgt. James Byron said previously that Mobley and an accomplice, Brian Hinshaw, broke into a home in the 600 block of South Lowry Avenue, and the homeowner shot Hinshaw dead. Law enforcement officials said the homeowner will not face a grand jury review.
Randy Graham was shot and killed May 14 on Buckeye Street, followed by 16-year-old Da’Meko Taborn’s death the same day. Taborn was found in a black SUV that crashed into a house at Limestone Street and Euclid Avenue. He had a gunshot wound to his head.
For Graham’s homicide, Elijah Thomas, 21, faces two counts of murder, as well as a host of other charges. Taborn’s shooting remains under investigation. Another nonfatal shooting happened 20 minutes after Taborn’s, just down the street on Euclid.
Who or what is to blame?
Randy Graham’s “father figure,” David Rose, gave an impassioned plea to commissioners and the community Tuesday, asking for the violence to stop.
“You guys don’t understand the hurt until it hits home,” Rose said, before speaking about a 1997 incident in which he said his sister and niece were killed and other niece paralyzed. “Now my son’s taken from me. ... What do we got to do for you guys to wake up on this board to stop selling everything? Make something for the kids to do positive.”
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Resident Jeffrey Allen said that “everybody has guns” and acknowledged state law changes in recent years.
“We can’t sit here and pretend that the state didn’t vote to let everyone carry guns and conceal weapons every place, any time, any place in the city,” Allen said. “And you can’t blame a 17-year-old or someone who’s just below the age who may be in an apartment with adults who all have guns. They be at a disadvantage.”
In 2022, Ohio passed a law allowing Ohioans 21 and older to carry a gun without a permit, background check or training. They must legally be allowed to own the gun and are no longer required to tell police they are armed when stopped.
City leaders push back
Multiple residents also expressed concerns at Tuesday’s city commission meeting about what they said is a lack of resources for children and teens, leading to gun violence.
But commissioners Tracey Tackett, Krystal Brown, Estrop and Bridget Houston objected to that, listing different activities in which kids can participate. Mayor Rob Rue was not at the meeting.
Estrop said the city is trying to provide more opportunities for youth, pointing to a “pretty good bundle of money” spent on additional features at Snyder Park and Davey Moore Park.
“Yet that apparently doesn’t count. Pickleball courts right out there (on city hall plaza), being used right now and we were criticized, ‘Should have put the money in (paving) the streets.’ Well we put it in things that people use in addition to the streets,” Estrop said. “We put over $2 million a year in our streets. We went nine years with no street paving because the state government cut our local government funding, and we damn near went bankrupt as a city. If it hadn’t been for all the citizens of Springfield stepping forward and passing a levy, we would have been bankrupt.”
Commissioners referenced the National Trails Parks and Recreation District’s 2025 summer activity guide, which includes things to do for adults, youth, families and nature lovers. This includes camps, sports, fitness, music, festivals, educational activities, art and more.
Studies, results, personal experience
Director of the Springfield Domestic Violence Coalition Beth Donahue said at the public comment portion of the city meeting that gun violence and domestic violence are preventable, but she accused the city of having “monetized gun violence.”
She criticized Dion Green of the Fudge Foundation “convening for space in this area,” as well as new nonprofit Springfield Youth Source and the Springfield Foundation. Donahue said ongoing efforts have not addressed the problem.
“The sheer amount of money allocated to studying gun violence in Springfield could support a third-world country, and still money and resources have not transformed Springfield,” Donahue said.
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Tackett and Brown later objected to criticisms of Green, whose dad died in the 2019 Oregon District mass shooting.
Brown also talked about the impact gun violence has had on her life, as a child seeing one of her brother’s friends killed.
“As a child I saw one of my brother’s friends shot and killed, and I saw him running home as his blood dripped on the sidewalk and he died on his way to his house,” Brown said. “A few years later my cousin Rodney Eugene Harris was shot and killed. Now I can go on and on with people that I know and people that I love, so I personally take offense to ... the blanket statements that no one on city commission cares about gun violence.”
She said the country and state “continue to put Band-Aids on things and we talk about all the things in the room except for the elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room is the fact that we don’t address poverty and we don’t address systemic racism.” Brown, who is also the supervisor of student support services at Springfield City School District, said she has seen several of her students either victim to or perpetrator of gun violence.
“So if you think that I wake up every single day and serve these kids that that just goes away when I come to this part-time job at night, that is insanity to me,” Brown said.
Data, details on gun violence
The federal government in April canceled $1.24 million of a gun violence prevention grant in Springfield. The grant, originally for about $1.6 million, funded an effort in Springfield to address violence, particularly among young people. Almost $400,000 has been invested in planning and efforts to launch street outreach since it was awarded in 2023. All efforts are now on pause.
From 2021 to 2023, the majority of gun violence offenders in Springfield were between the ages of 18-24, according to data collected as part of a gun violence prevention grant. That 18-24 age group was followed by 25-30, 31-36 and 14-17.
A heat map identified areas of the city in which there were the most shots-fired calls from 2023 to 2024, as well as firearms-related arrests from December 2020 to January 2024. The highest concentrations were in census tracts 3, 12 and 13, all in southeast Springfield.
Caleb Perkins, Clark County gun violence prevention coordinator, was hired as part of an alliance formed by the city, Springfield City Schools, the Clark County Combined Health District, OIC, the Mental Health and Recovery Board, Community Health Foundation, Springfield Foundation, Clark County Juvenile Court and NAACP designed to address juvenile violence.
The first phase of the project was data collection, with action items to come in phase II, which was expected to begin soon, before the grant was canceled.
Concrete plans to slow gun violence
Perkins is now serving in a new role at OIC after the gun violence grant was frozen. He told commissioners in February that the group planned to implement four strategies to address Springfield’s gun violence problem:
- Coordinate with existing programs to establish at-risk mentoring for youths and young adults;
- Develop a violence interrupter program to engage at-risk individuals and mediate conflicts;
- Design a youth center to be a safe space for youth and provide additional services;
- Create pathways of communication and collaboration to get the community involved in the services.
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Credit: Jessica Orozco
Many of those steps mirror the city of Dayton’s plan on “violence interruption,” partnering with a group called Cure Violence Global.
Their report to the city said key reasons for shootings and other violence include drug sales and interpersonal conflicts, with the latter sometimes inflamed by social media.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims has put some focus on working directly with people deemed most at risk of committing violent acts. Mims said more community members, and young people especially, need to be taught conflict resolution skills, so every disagreement doesn’t turn into a violent episode.
Cure Violence Global hires and trains violence interrupters who try to identify and mediate conflicts before they can escalate.
A public health crisis
Last June, then-U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory calling firearm violence a “public health crisis.” According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 54% of adults or their family members have experienced a gun-related incident in their lives. Gun-related violence is the leading cause of death among children and adolescents.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, in the first four months of 2025, nationwide year to date gun-related deaths and injuries are down, as well as mass shootings. The Trace, which investigates American gun violence, identifies at least 282 shootings from 2014 to 2024 in Springfield, with 95 people killed and 248 injured.
For comparison, Hamilton in Butler County, which is similar in population, is is listed with at least 129 shootings from 2014 to 2024 (less than half as many as Springfield), with 62 deaths and 111 injuries.
“We’re not going to come to a conclusion on it (tonight),” Jeffrey Allen said at the commission meeting. ”But we need to open up our eyes and really say what’s going on. We can’t just say, ‘Oh it’s this or that.’ You know, everybody has guns. This is where we are, and we have to deal with that.”
Credit: Marshall Gorby
Credit: Marshall Gorby
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