7 July 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Wichita Police Department released gun violence numbers Thursday.
Jan. 1, 2023, through July 4, 2023:
City-wide:
Fatal shootings – 16 victims,
Non-fatal shootings – 70 victims
Old Town:
Fatal shootings: – 1 victim
Non-fatal shootings – 11 victims
Jan. 1, 2022, through July 4, 2022:
City-wide:
Fatal shootings – 14 victims
Non-fatal shootings – 65 victims
Old Town:
Fatal shootings – 0 victims
Non-fatal shootings – 0 victims
Keena Charles lost her 25-year-old son Semaj to gun violence over five years ago.
“Grief, the trauma, this community is so traumatized,” Charles said.
Her life was shattered because of gun violence.
“Survivors … that’s what we are doing,” Charles said. “We are trying to survive. When you bury your child, you are trying. You are in survival mode from that time on.”
She started the Violence Impact Community Integration Program, which helps the survivors of the victims and works to end gun violence.
“We are just thinking, this is a way of life, or this is just how it is, and no, we should not be living this way,” Charles said. “We have to turn this around. We have to stop.”
The problem, Charles believes, stems from a lack of communication.
“I think, as a community, we have lost value in each other,” Charles said. “We have lost the ability to respect each other, to respect the fact that you have an opinion about something, I have an opinion about something, and that’s OK. We both should still live.”
She says it’s going to take everyone working and understanding to stop it.
“Justice can only be achieved when those who are not injured by crime feel as indignant as those who are.”
Charles says she wants people not to wake up feeling like she does.