COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Richland County community gathered to talk about solutions when it comes to gun violence in the area.
This comes after a shooting on Sunday took the lives of three teens, 16-year-old Jakobe Fanning, 17-year-old Dre’Von Riley, and 17-year-old Caleb Wise.
Residents were given the opportunity to ask questions and suggest things that need to be changed in order to help prevent more violence like this from happening.
Several people asked about transportation for kids, resource education for families, youth programming at all hours, community centers staying open late or saving space for young people, and more.
The community event was organized by state and local leaders like Kambrell Garvin and County Councilwoman Gretchen Barron.
"We have 16 and 17-year-old kids who are no longer with us, and so tonight's event is about bringing our community together, to figure out ways to eradicate this gun violence epidemic. Our kids are getting access to guns, shooting and killing one another, so we have to figure out how we solve it, what we can do as elected officials to solve it, and I think it's going to take all of us coming together," said state representative for District 77, Kambrell Garvin.
Parents, grandparents, teachers, and everyone in between in the community came together to mourn the loss of three teens killed on Sunday and pray for better in the future.
"Us talking about what we're going to do has to stop tonight. During the press conference yesterday someone texted me and said, 'You just need to calm down', and I said 'No, you're too calm'. That is the problem, people have become accustomed to children getting shot down and we can't do that anymore," Richland County Councilwoman, Gretchen Barron said.