Police: Shootings not unusual this time of year
After two separate shooting incidents involving young people over the weekend in Chattanooga, police said that what may seem like an uptick in shootings is typical this time of year.
“The incidents we typically see this time of year when people get out of the house again, we have more human interaction outside, and whenever folks have disagreements now, they act upon those disagreements rather than walk away,” Chattanooga Assistant Chief Jerri Sutton said by phone Monday.
“In terms of actual trends, no, nothing is trending up right now,” Sutton said.
On Saturday, young people were involved in two separate shooting incidents in Chattanooga.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m. officers responded to a “shots fired” call near Hamilton Place and were informed that a fight “involving juvenile girls and two boys” ended in gunfire, according to a Chattanooga Police Department news release.
The fight took place between the Cheesecake Factory and the Aloft Hotel when one of the males involved in the fight fired a single shot, according to the release.
“No one was shot but a window at the Aloft Hotel was damaged as a result,” the release said. “All involved parties then ran from the scene.”
A 16-year-old male — who admitted to having fired a weapon during the fight — was taken into custody by Chattanooga police, according to the release.
Then around 8:45 p.m. officers responded to a “shots fired” call in the 300 block of Broad Street downtown — the block that includes the AMC movie theaters.
The incident left an 18-year-old woman injured by a vehicle as she was running away from gunfire.
The woman was taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Sutton said most of the shootings are between people who are familiar with one another, and the department will continue to work in policing areas that may see an increase in violence in the future.
“It’s important for the safety of all children to have active parental supervision and involvement,” Sutton said in an email. “This often lessens the likelihood of them being involved in adverse or criminal behavior. The Chattanooga Police Department is continuing our partnerships with community violence disruptors to provide safe spaces for our youth to congregate and recreate.”
Last year, two mass shootings involving young people took place in Chattanooga.
On May 28, an incident that Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly called “a dispute among teens,” ended with six teens between the ages of 13 and 15 injured — two of them with life-threatening injuries.
Two juveniles were arrested in connection with that shooting.
On June 5, three people were killed and 14 were injured in a mass shooting on McCallie Avenue. The youngest person injured in that incident was a 16-year-old boy.
Three arrests have been made in connection with that shooting.
The shootings last year inspired LaDarius Price, the community outreach administrator for Chattanooga Cares and cofounder of the Lighthouse Collective, to host a series of town hall meetings at area high schools where students said the shootings left them lost and in fear.
“No Smoke Sundays” kicked off in late June of last year in an effort to deter young people from violence.
This year, those efforts will continue, starting with a Boys Leadership Summit on April 29 at Chattanooga Preparatory School, Price said.
“We’re going to be very consistent with what we’ve been doing,” Price said by phone Monday.
That event will be followed with the Lighthouse Scholars, which will be hosted in early June at the McCallie School.
“It’s about us being very consistent about laying the foundation … not just programming,” Price said, “but building relationships with young people. It’s going to help curb the violence. We’re excited about it, but at the same time, given what took place last summer, at the beginning of it, we definitely don’t want to see something like that happen again.”