Cincinnati mayor: Shootings ‘senseless’
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee gathered two weeks ago to hear a presentation on rising violence in the city from Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
Neudigate shared graphics showing the city was on pace to have the highest number of homicides in its history.
Neudigate attributed the rise in violence to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said has prevented officers from being as much a part of the community as in years past. The protests in Cincinnati in late May and early June related to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody frayed police-community relations, and Neudigate said there is work to be done to repair the damage.
Since then, more people have died, And in a matter of hours Sunday morning, there were 18 people shot, four of them fatally, in four separate incidents. At one incident at Grant Park in Over-the-rhine, 10 people were shot.
The city’s violent weekend with multiple people shot ended with three more shootings late Sunday, police said.
A man was found shot in the back in the 1300 block of Broadway Street in Pendleton about 10:30 p.m. and taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The shooting was reported after a fight broke out at a party inside a local Airbnb apartment.
A man showed up at Good Samaritan Hospital with gunshot wounds to both hands from a shooting reported in the 2300 block of May Street in Walnut Hills about 8:30 p.m.
A 37-year-old woman was found shot in her hand on Mount Hope Avenue in East Price Hill about 9:30 p.m. She told police she was in the car with her husband and child when a bullet came through the window and struck her, police said. She was taken by ambulance to the UC Medical Center.
The victims in the latest shootings Sunday night are all expected to recover and the cases are not connected, they said.
Teams of officers are working to track down the suspects. Mayor John Cranley pledged justice would be brought for the victims.
Cranley and some members of Cincinnati City Council reacted to the shootings Sunday on social media and in response questions. The theme was the same: The violence needs to stop.
The shootings come amid a movement by some to reform or defund the police. Council rejected any attempt to defund police during June budget talks, but many members said they plan to revisit the idea during Fraternal Order of Police contract talks, which will begin next year ahead of the end of the union’s contract in May 2021.
There is also a movement to put a charter amendment to citizens in November to re-organize the police department. Petitions have been submitted to the Clerk of Council for review.
Cranley said “guns are far too prevalent” in Cincinnati as he expressed concern about the deadly spate of violence early Sunday.
“Last night Cincinnati saw senseless gun violence that ruined lives and will cause immeasurable suffering,” Cranley said in the opening of a statement sent to the media Sunday afternoon. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing unprecedented circumstances and challenges when it comes to fighting crime. Cities nationwide are experiencing spikes in crime.”
Cranley said part of the problem is large gatherings in homes and parks after 10 p.m., the new state-mandated last call at bars designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“Guns are far too prevalent at these gatherings,” Cranley said. He urged people not to attend such gatherings so they don’t “end up as an innocent victim.”