South Bend Council member speaks up about violent weekend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- South Bend Common Council Member Henry Davis Jr. is speaking up after a weekend where the city saw more than 300 shots fired and 5 people injured. Most of those shootings occurred in Davis's 2nd District.

"Do I condone the violence? Absolutely not," said Davis. "I think its sick but we have to put it in its proper context."

Davis says that the violence the city saw, specifically on Bertand and Olive Streets are only a symptom of a deeper problem that needs to be addressed.

"There are transformational changes that have occurred over 20 years. We can’t act like we’re surprised," said Davis. "These are seeds that were laid years ago. It took steps to get here."

One thing Davis says needs to be addressed in order to curb future violence is the lack of medical and economic resources in the area.

"We are in dire need over here of economic divestment, from multiple sources; it’s just not city government," said Davis.

Davis says improvements are making their way to the 2nd District, but they need to be sped up.

"We are going to work it this way, the economic conversation has happened, but things are going awry now in this area so it’s a bit more urgent," said Davis.

Davis says that it's going to take the community working together and having conversations with government and business leaders in order to fix the problems he believes are leading to the violence in the district.

"It has to be a team effort. It has to be across the board," said Davis. "We have to let the community in on these conversations and let them know that it’s available."