GREENSBORO, N.C. — Dozens of community members, youth and Greensboro city leaders braved a chilly December afternoon while gathered at Mount Zion Church of God Sunday. The purpose? To address something they call a dangerous epidemic: gun violence among youth in Greensboro.
Fighting back tears, Page High School principal Eric Negele, one of the speakers at the event, shared how gun violence has affected him and his school personally.
Earlier this year, Page student and football player died from injuries he received from a shooting. Davis was shot on March 2 off of North Elm Street in Greensboro at The Pointe at Irving Park Apartment Homes.
Davis was a senior running back on the football team, and wore the number 26 for Page.
“He was an incredible young man,” Negele said about Davis. “Sincere wanted everyone to pursue their best.”
Also present, Greensboro mayor Nancy Vaughn.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said of the homicides and violent crime affecting the City of Greensboro.
Last week, the City of Greensboro had it's 41st deadly shooting of the year. The victim was 21-year-old Aaron Christopher Thomas. He was found by police with a gunshot wound at his home on Brown Boulevard.
“I’ve lost more classmates than I’ve had birthdays” Dudley High School senior Coleman Wood shared.
Wood says, while he never actually played on the court with Thomas, the 21-year-old always came to watch him play and gave him advice to apply both on and off the court.
He was a big brother to me, honestly," Wood says. "He always said to me, 'Stay safe, stay safe. The streets aren't for you. It's not the right path to go down'"
Sheriff Danny Rogers was the last speaker at the event. He called on all community leaders to come together and actively create change in the community to end gun violence.
Before a community meal, everyone in attendance vowed to start a new coalition to keep the conversation going beyond today's meeting and to find new solutions to the problem.