‘We need new leadership’: Garden Homes residents fed up after deadly drive-by shooting
CBS 58 MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — On Thursday afternoon, 27-year-old Khamaren Adell was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting outside a convenience store near the intersection of 27th Street and Atkinson Avenue.
Vince Toney lives down the street and says shootings like this are not new to the Garden Homes neighborhood.
“The remedies that they have for this city obviously aren’t working, and we need new leadership throughout the city of Milwaukee to start making some effective changes that are sustainable,” Toney said.
CBS 58 talked with District 1 Alderwoman Andrea Pratt about the call for new leadership.
“I’m working with everybody I can to come up with a solution for neighbors and my neighbors who live in Garden Homes,” Pratt said.
Toney claims Pratt is not doing anything to slow down gun violence in her district, saying he has tried to meet with her.
“It is increasingly more helpful for someone to help us in these efforts than to be critical of what we are doing,” Pratt said.
Pratt says the city is organizing neighborhood cleanups and walks and has street teams working to slow the violence.
Vaun Mayes is with the Milwaukee group Promise Keepers, which works to connect with the community amid gun violence.
“We’ll have a group come out, they’ll be super visible, they'll go door to door, they’ll go business to business, they’ll make their presence known,” Mayes said.
Toney believes what the ground crews are doing is “ambulance chasing.”
“That’s not preventive. Every time somebody gets shot, then all of the community service organizations want to say, 'All hands on deck,' but I don't know if any hands have been on deck over there since yesterday,” Toney said.
Mayes says crews have been at the 27th Street and Atkinson Avenue scene and are doing everything they can to prevent any further violence.
“If we can connect with family, friends of the people who were the victims or even the shooters to see what we can do to prevent a retaliatory act,” Mayes said. “It’s unfortunate when people kind of go out of their way to undermine some of the work that’s been going on.”
