Community members take action in the fight against gun violence

By James Szkobel-Wolff,

Zshekinah Collier, Khalilah Brown-Dean, Catie Talarski

Published January 19, 2022 at 1:38 PM EST

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A memorial takes shape on a telephone pole near the site where 26-year-old Yale forestry graduate student Kevin Jiang was shot and killed in the Goatville section of New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood.

Ryan Caron King / Connecticut Public

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Three of the mothers spearheading the development of the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence take a look at the temporary sign they created after a few hours of work in the garden.

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Retired New Haven detective Stacy Spell, at left, local Project Longevity chief, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Markle at a Project Longevity call-in in 2015.

Paul Bass / New Haven Independent

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Eviction Filings in Connecticut between 2017-2022

(courtesy of CT Data Collaborative)

Over the past decade, Connecticut has averaged nearly 200 gun deaths each year. How are community members responding? This week, two New Haven initiatives that are trying to prevent gun violence before it even happens. Plus, a new report on the staggering number of evictions in our state.

GUESTS:

Marlene Pratt: Co-founder of The New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence.
Lorenzo Boyd: Stewart Professor in Criminal Justice and Community Policing at the University of New Haven
Salmun Kazerounian: Staff Attorney for the Connecticut Fair Housing Center
Michelle Riordan-Nold: Executive Director of the Connecticut Data Collaborative

CT Data's and the CT Fair Housing Center's report on evictions will be released on February 8th. You can find the report herewhen it's out.

This week's episode was produced by James Szkobel-Wolff, Zshekinah Collier, and Catie Talarski.

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