Gun violence in South Bend

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.— 3 mass shootings. Countless assaults called in and yet, more are coming.

With the recent shooting early Saturday morning on Cedar Street, ABC57 dug deeper to see how crime has stacked up this past summer.

            Mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, are incidents where 4 or more people are shot or killed at the same time and place. The 3 Michiana mass shootings include:

• June 23^rd at Kelley’s Pub
• July 31^st at Oakland senior living complex
• And now September 21^st on Cedar Street

Within the past three months, June through August, there have been 50 criminally assaulted shootings in South Bend according to the South Bend Police Department.

Compared to 2018 with 16, there is a dramatic 34 shooting increase that is causing many in our community to take concern.

Tenara Taylor, who has lived on Cedar Street with her 8 children for the past 8 years, has seen violence come and go through her usually peaceful neighborhood. She says that it is frightening to see so many young people involved in gun violence, especially when it is just steps away from her own home.

I also reached out to Dr. Stacie Merken, an assistant professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University South Bend to get her take as a criminologist. Merken says that while people want to be able to have a reason for shootings—there will never be one size fits all label. Rather there are numerous factors that play into each individual shooter in varying ways including biological, sociological, psychological, physiological, parenting among many others.

Merken also shared that there are different factors that have changed over time making gun violence more normalized. Through media, movies, video games, and gun availability violence is being perpetuated more easily than ever before.

“You see this good guy with a gun that solves the problem so I think somehow I’m individuals heads especially teenagers they tend to think we’ll the gun is going to solve the problem for me whether it’s in a good way or bad way.”

While there has been an increase in violence, not all the community has given up hope, Taylor says, “Even though there are crazy things going on here our neighbors on this block stick together, we look out for one another, and because we do in that instance we feel safer together.”