As gun fatalities rise, call for accountability
Mothers United Against Violence urge community to take a stand
Guillermo Gonzalez had just stepped out of his apartment building at 305 Zion St. on the morning of May 10 to grab a hot dog when he became Hartford’s 13th homicide victim, an unintended target of a drive-by shooting.
The 59-year-old, according to family members, had followed COVID protocols to the letter because he had underlying health issues. Yet he was cut down by a stray bullet when he went out for a quick bite to eat and some fresh air, leaving his tightknit family members, many of whom also live in the building, with bottomless grief.
At a prayer vigil held by the community group Mothers United Against Violence on Monday, the Rev. Henry Brown spoke for about 20 minutes in front of the apartment building with righteous fury directed not just at the perpetrators, but also members of the community who know who fired the shots that killed Gonzalez, yet remain silent out of fear.
“Until the Black and Brown people in our community unite to stop it, it’s not going to stop,” Brown told the crowd of about 40, many of whom wore black shirts that said “RIP Guillo” with Gonzalez’s picture. “We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable for what’s going on in
“It doesn’t matter where you live, it’s a thing called evil that’s upon us ... It’s a great evil. It’s called gun violence. People are dying every day. People are being shot up every day.”
— Rev. Henry Brown, Mothers United Against Violence
our community. We have to hold each other accountable, Black, Puerto Rican, we are dying in these streets every day. … Here’s the kicker: We need to cooperate with the police.
“We keep saying, ‘I don’t like the police. I don’t want to get involved with the police. I don’t want to talk to the police.’ Then how is it going to stop unless we talk to the police? We need to start telling what we know. When you see something, say something. … We’ve got to make it better for all the young people to live. … You’ve got to take a stand. You’ve got to dig in.”
Brown noted that Gonzalez was the third person in a year to be killed by stray gunfire.
Sylvia “Pebbles” Cordova was killed by a bullet that ripped through her home while she was cooking on June 9, 2021.
In March, Cynthia Reynolds, 62, was tending to her garden in Hartford when she was unintentionally gunned down.
Brown also alluded to two more homicides — the city’s 14th and 15th of the year — that took place in Hartford over the weekend.
“What I’m saying is there are senseless killings going on in Hartford.” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter where you live, it’s a thing called evil that’s upon us in Hartford, Connecticut,” Brown said. “It’s a great evil. It’s called gun violence. People are dying every day. People are being shot up every day.”
Brown said he wanted to see a change in the community in Gonzalez’s name, because the perpetrators of gun violence have “too much power.”
“We don’t want to see anybody else laying down in the streets,” Brown said. “We need justice.”
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who attended the vigil, told Gonzalez’s family members he couldn’t fathom the grief they were experiencing.
“I can never understand the pain that you’re in right now,” Bronin said. “We’re not asking anything of you other than to take care of yourselves and take care of your loved ones.”
Bronin said, without giving away too much, that the police had several substantial leads concerning the perpetrators in Gonzalez’s killing.
“I hope you know [the police] are doing everything they can to bring to justice the people who did this,” he said. “They take this personally.”
A tearful Joanna Rodriguez, Gonzalez’s niece, promised that whoever was responsible for her uncle’s death would be brought to justice.
“We’re going to get justice,” she said. “You guys took a great man.”
The vigil comes on the heels of a weekend that saw the shooting deaths of Jordan Maddox, 24, of Warren Street, on Saturday, and Jaime Holmes, 30, of East Hartford, on Sunday.
In a separate interview, Bronin said the city was taking a multifaceted approach to reduce gun violence “with more resources than we’ve ever been able to bring to bear before.”
Bronin said that includes stepping up law enforcement efforts to take illegal guns off the streets and to solve homicide cases and non-fatal shooting cases.
In addition, Hartford is investing in community partnerships such as the recently announced hospital violence intervention program, intensive engagement with youths who are most at risk of engaging in violence, the expansion of the Re-entry Welcome Center and the “reinvigoration” of Project Longevity, Bronin said.
“There is no single or simple answer to the problem of gun violence,” Bronin said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure both our law enforcement have the tools and resources they need and that our community partnerships are as strong as they can be.”
Bronin noted that with the weekend shootings, there was a “strong intersection” between gun violence and narcotics trafficking.
“Our officers have stepped up even further their targeted enforcement, focused on that intersection of drugs and guns,” Bronin said. “It seems clear from what we know thus far that in both of the two homicides that occurred over the weekend, the shootings were targeted and were connected to drug trafficking.”
Bronin also acknowledged the devastating effect communities experience with gun violence.
“Any time there is an incident of gun violence in any community it is deeply painful and traumatic and the grief ripples outward,” he said.