Gun violence victim shares story to encourage others to speak up

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Stop the violence.

That’s the message one South Bend gun violence victim wants to share after he and his home on South Scott Street was shot at close to 10 times Monday night.

“its real, its bad. I don’t see what you are getting from it," said Anthony Rucker. His family lives near the scene of the incident. 

It was close to 7:30 Monday evening that 24-year-old Kevin Brazier walked outside to confront his ex-girlfriend after receiving threats.

When he approached her red SUV, an unknown passenger pointed a gun at him and fired between 6 and 10 shots.

“My brother screams 'Kevin, no!' One of them hit my hand, a lot of them hit the house. I felt the dirt jump up and hit my face. That’s how close the bullet was to my head," said Brazier.

It was just on Sunday, that his close friend and well known local activist known as Blu Casey was shot and suffered injuries.

Now, his personal run in with gun violence is pushing him to speak up.

“Gun violence isn't safe and it changes lives. Not just the victim but the family. Even just being shot at," said Brazier.

Brazier is not the only one.

After the suspects drove off, brazier recalls multiple neighbors coming out to not only help, but after seeing something, they chose to say something.

“Stray bullets don’t have a name on them. So they all came together to try to resolve this as a community," said Rucker.

“You’ve got to say something, because if you stay quiet people will keep doing these things you know. My wife, my son, my daughters. I don’t want anything to happen to my family," said neighbor Jose Mariscal.

According to Brazier, they’re just a few of the people who spoke to police.

“They had at least 15 statements. My whole house, a few other houses, i'm not going to say. They have a lot of statements of what happened. It’s definitely a community effort in so many ways and it shows the support that the community does have and you wouldn’t even realize it. Everyone spoke out to police. Everyone.”

South Bend Police say the incident is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.