VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Community activists like Rell Black said he’s had enough with the recent violence in his city. Black is the founder and executive director of the Community Healing Project, an organization that focuses on economic, health, and educational awareness.
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It’s beyond tragic at this point. It’s happening so much, back to back to back, it feels like the shock has worn out and that’s not natural,” Black said.
He plans to attend Monday night’s community meeting to share why it’s important for local organizations to be in the forefront and invest in children to stop the violent cycle, through social and mental health programs.
“The more they get the resources and the availability to make an impact, the less we’re going to see in this,” he said.
In the last 10 days, there’ve been six shootings and four deaths. The most recent shooting happened Sunday afternoon at the Derbyshire Park Basketball Courts. Police are searching for 31-year-old Arrington Turner who they said fatally shot 19-year-old John Phillips.
“There’s very little rationale or logic for the senseless nature of the crimes that have been perpetrated in our community,” said Derrick Henry, Mayor of Daytona Beach.
Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry said he’s frustrated over the recent shootings and mentioned last year’s violence that happened around the same time. He said it’s now past the point of just relying on the police department to curb the violence. He hopes Monday night’s meeting will be a jumping-off point.
“It’s critical that we as a community hold ourselves accountable and we confront the lack of logic in these senseless crimes and then we commit ourselves to do all we can to eliminate, discourage and future discourages in violence,” said Henry.