Rekeeda Peoples had to do something.
Two children at Gilliam Head Start Center, where she works as a case worker, had fathers involved in the recent spate of violence that has rocked Greenwood.
So she decided to address the recent killings during the center’s parent meeting, which will be at 10 a.m. Thursday.
“Stop the violence” is its theme. The community is invited.
“If we continue to kill each other, who’s going to be left to raise our children?” Peoples asks.
Mayor Carolyn McAdams, who plans to attend, said the program is a good start.
“We have got to stop it. I don’t like seeing it happen in the city of Greenwood like it’s been happening, repeatedly,” the mayor said.
Seven lives have ended in violence this year in the city. Six of the victims have been black men between the ages of 20 and 40.
Three — Ricky Ferguson, 25, Jeffery Johnson, 32, and Kimbroque Massey, 40 — were killed during domestic disputes.
The other three — Audrey McDonald, 20, Cornelius Banks, 22, and Repredto Reed, 29 — were shot on the streets.
A seventh man, Derek Criddle, 26, was stabbed to death by another inmate at Delta Correctional Facility.
The situation is not just a Greenwood problem.
Nationally, murder victims are disproportionately young, black and male.
In 2010, 20 percent of all homicide victims were black men in their 20s even though that demographic group makes up only 0.9 percent of the total U.S. population, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and census data.
McAdams said she lived in North Greenwood for years without having any idea what was happening at night on the streets of South Greenwood. After riding along with police after becoming mayor, she was shocked by the level of activity in the wee hours.
She and Peoples both said the violence is a problem for all residents of Greenwood regardless of where they live.
“It’s just not a South Greenwood problem; it’s a whole community problem,” Peoples said.
Banks’ mother, Nancy Banks Davis, issued a plea to young people to put down their weapons in an ad that ran in the Commonwealth on Nov. 27. She begged them to prevent other families from having to go through what her family did following her son’s death.
She urged young men to “help take care of your babies and raise them as they should be.”
McAdams said police are taking definite steps to end the bloodshed. The city has beefed up patrols using auxiliary officers, and officers are walking beats on foot in certain neighborhoods.
After Banks’ slaying, Greenwood police called on U.S. Marshals for assistance. Marshals ended up arresting one of the four suspects charged in the case in Memphis and returned him to Greenwood.
Police are also enforcing the 1 a.m. closing time at clubs and will shut them down earlier if they have continued problems at a location, McAdams said.
She said the city may reactivate complacent Neighborhood Watch programs. But she added that police need assistance from people in communities.
If they know something is not right or that retaliation is brewing, they need to let police know, she said. That way officers have a chance to deter things before someone loses a life.
The most recent killing — of Reed on Nov. 28 on Jackson Street — was retaliation for something, McAdams said. Several people saw it, but police haven’t made much progress in the investigation because witnesses are not talking to police, she said.
But somewhere people are talking about what happened, McAdams said.
If you don’t want to give your name, don’t, McAdams said. But she urged those with information to give tips to police so detectives can investigate.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
