At least seven shootings in a little more than a week have left five people dead and 10 people injured near West Hampton Avenue in Milwaukee.
It’s a startling rash of violence for residents like Arlene Knox, who saw some of the violence spill out near her home as she microwaved her dinner and looked out her kitchen window.
“This stuff needs to stop,” she said. “You’re scared to go in your yard.”
Six shootings since June 6 have occurred on Hampton Avenue or within a few blocks, including a quadruple shooting and an exchange of gunfire that led to an injured Milwaukee police officer and suspect, and a double shooting June 19 that killed one person and injured another.
Knox and other residents said the shootings are unusual for the area, which is near the Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education and has a mix of longtime homeowners and renters.
Another shooting occurred in the nearby Long View neighborhood, which killed 12-year-old Marvayah Darby on June 13, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Alderwoman Andrea Pratt, who represents the area where the shootings occurred, planned a neighborhood walk before they occurred. Some residents declined to attend the walk out of fear, Pratt believed.
“We know when it gets warmer, we to have an uptick in violence,” she said. “The rate at which we see it in my district … has been unprecedented.”
The shootings aren’t a historic surge but are unusual for how many have taken place in such a short time, according to Milwaukee Police Department data. In Pratt’s district, there have been 12 homicides this year, two more than last year. Non-fatal shootings are down 16% in the district year-to-date compared to last year.
The neighborhood the shootings occurred in is adjacent to the city’s Old North neighborhood, which is what the city calls a Promise Zone, said Karin Tyler, the acting director of the city’s Office of Community Wellness and Safety, in a previous Journal Sentinel interview.
Those areas have lower community resources and higher levels of violence and Tyler said the area on Hampton mirrors that in some ways.
Her office and others have sent violence prevention groups like 414Life and the Promise Keepers to the area to try to deter further violence from breaking out.
Organizations like Safe and Sound, a community group that helps create block watches and facilitate engagement with police, and Pratt’s office are trying to recreate a community network to try and alleviate some of the root issues, the council person said. Those groups were there in the past, she said.
Safe and Sound didn’t respond to a request for an interview on its work in the neighborhood.
Pratt said she believed local police had devoted more resources to the area as well and it seemed noticeable on her walk through the neighborhood.
“They’re obviously kind of concentrating on the area, trying to probably quell whatever is going on,” she said.
Andre Tharpe, another resident who lives in the area, was sitting on his front porch June 17, with his grandchild and child playing on his porch and yard.
Tharpe said he still feels safe in the neighborhood. But he admitted he’s nervous when he gets home from work late at night and hustles inside. He takes care when taking the children to the McDonald’s a short walk away from his home.
“The way they’re killing out here doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Pratt worried the gun violence was overtaking the neighborhood’s narrative.
“I don’t want the story of this neighborhood just to be these shootings,” she said. “There are people who have been there for decades. I just want to make sure that their story is told and that they are safe.”
(This story was updated to add new information.)
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee residents alarmed after deadly week on Hampton; efforts to stem violence continue
Reporting by David Clarey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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