COURIER L 12 IFE, JULY 17-23, 2020
Borough President Eric Adams holds a pair of infant shoes. Photo by Ben Verde
Bed-Stuy horror
Leaders call for structural change
following shooting of one-year-old
BY BEN VERDE
Local leaders are demanding structural
change to gun violence prevention
efforts after a spray of bullets at a
barbecue claimed the life of one-yearold
Davell Gardner in Bedford-Stuyvesant
and sent three men to the hospital
on Sunday.
The July 12 shooting is the latest
tragedy to shake the borough as gun
violence continues to spike this summer.
On the same night, 11 shootings
occurred across the city, including one
in Crown Heights less than a mile away
from where one-year-old Gardner was
killed, where a 12-year-old boy shot in
the leg while sitting on his stoop.
Borough President Eric Adams is
offering a reward of $1,000 out of his
personal funds for information leading
to the arrest of those responsible
for Gardner’s death. The violence interruption
group My Brother’s Keeper
is offering an additional $2,000 reward.
At a press conference Monday, Adams
called on the NYPD to prosecute
gun violence perpetrators faster and
work with local crisis management
systems and clergy members to root
out gun violence at the community
level.
“Nine people shot and we haven’t
made one arrest — why does it take
this long?” he said.
Adams also called out the Police
Department over rumors of a “slowdown”
in policing in response to police
brutality protests.
“I don’t want to hear a conversation
about a slowdown in policing because
your egos are hurt,” said Adams, a former
NYPD offi cer. “I want the same
level of attention and dedication because
you are sworn to protect and
serve this city, not to get in political issues.”
Public Advocate Juumane Williams
agreed that law enforcement must play
a direct role in stopping gun violence
within in the communities they serve.
“If you think law enforcement and
police have no part to play, you are
wrong,” Williams said. “They have a
part to play and many of us are going
to do our part to make sure that part is
done with equity and justice.”
But law enforcement should not
be the only agency that receives resources
to end gun violence, said Williams,
who joined a chorus of elected
offi cials, anti-violence activists, and
clergy members on Monday afternoon
just feet from where Davell Gardener
was killed on Madison Avenue and
Marcus Garvey Boulevard. Yellow
markers of shell casings still stood behind
police tape, and remnants of the
barbecue that had been interrupted by
gunfi re were still intact.
“If you are out here saying that
the only thing that these communities
need are police, or that the biggest
thing that they need are police, that is
also wrong,” Williams said. “The same
people that you keep seeing asking for
more police, I ask you to ask them this,
are they asking for more resources
for their hospital, are they asking for
more resources for their schools, are
they asking for healthy food around
them, are they asking for things for
their young people to do?”
Councilman Robert Cornegy, who
serves the district where the shooting
took place, also called on the city
to pour more resources into neighborhoods
dealing with gun violence
surges.
“Until we begin to pour the resources
in like they did in the ’20s
when they realized that poverty was a
public health issue … we’re not going
to move forward,” he said. “So while
we have one shooter, the reality is this
country loaded the bullet.”