Austin group fighting back against youth gun violence
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin police recently announced a 16-year-old boy has been arrested, accused of killing another 16-year-old.
It happened on Monday night just off Northgate Boulevard in north Austin.
"The victim was pronounced deceased at 9:01 pm," said an Austin Police Officer at the scene. "This is being investigated as Austin's 48th homicide."
In 2022, 74 juveniles were suspects in gun-related crimes including murder, assaults and robberies, according to Austin Police data, but efforts to reduce that number are ongoing.
"This problem is multi-faceted so it takes an ecosystem approach," said Sherwynn Patton with Life Anew Restorative Justice.
Life Anew is dedicated to ending the cycle of youth violence in communities by teaching and mentoring the youth.
"We are focused a lot on the southeast side of town and also on the north as well," Patton said.
Patton said they will go anywhere to help troubled kids. Forming relationships is step one in preventing gun violence, he said.
"We are working inside of our schools and this is more on the preventative side," Patton said.
Recently his organization set up a student ambassador program.
"They are people who can help us being able to address conflict in real time," Patton said.
You can also find his organization in Gardner Betts, the Travis County Juvenile Justice Center, teaching courses about gun violence.
"Because the fact of the matter is that if we don't reach people where they are, then we never will help them where they ultimately want to be," Patton said.
John's Hopkins University recently released its 5 takeaways from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) latest data on gun violence. That data shows that there has been an almost 9% decrease in gun homicides in 2023, but there was a 2% increase among children and teens 1-17 with 2,566 lives lost last year.
Patton said kids are buying the guns off the streets or getting them from someone they know.
"We have to start thinking about this holistically and think about how can we prevent our kids from getting those guns in their hands because they shouldn't have them at that age," said Patton.