Actor and comedian Mike Epps and Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears are partnering to speak to youth about gun violence.
The prosecutor’s office and Epps are hosting a “youth-centered roundtable discussion on the causes and consequences of youth gun violence,” a news release about the May 13 event stated.
High school students from Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), Warren Central High School and a local charter school will attend.
The conversation will be turned into a podcast episode to “highlight the voices of young people — voices too often missing from conversations about violence prevention and public safety.”
The event aims to give voice to the city’s youngest victims of gun violence and provide them an avenue to help shape solutions, the prosecutor’s office said.
Mike Epps stays close to his Indianapolis roots
Mike Epps is an Indiana native who has created an HGTV show alongside his TV-producer wife, Kyra Epps, centered around rehabbing houses on the Indianapolis comedian’s childhood block.
“Indianapolis is home for me and there’s nothing in the world like it. That’s why I’m buying back my block,” Epps says in a promotional video ahead of the show’s launch in 2023.
He’s also run into some gun trouble of his own while returning home. In March 2023, while in town to kick off a comedy tour, Epps was found with a firearm in his bag during a security checkpoint at Indianapolis International Airport.
Epps said he carried the gun for protection.
“I literally forgot that I had a pistol in my bag,” he said in an Instagram post.
He apologized for the incident and no charges were filed.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mike Epps will speak with Indy youth about gun violence during prosecutor’s roundtable
Reporting by Jen Guadarrama, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
