Bay area non-profit hosts special event to call for an end to gun violence
TAMPA, Fla. - Saturday, Bay Area leaders, including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and State Attorney Suzy Lopez, came together at Ragan Park for a special event hosted by the non-profit Rise Up For Peace to call for an end to gun violence.
Community leaders say enough is enough. The senseless gun violence must come to an end.
"This community is here today because we're fighting back not with guns, but with our actions," said Suzy Lopez, Hillsborough County State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit.
Lopez, along with Mayor Castor and Hillsborough County Commissioner Gwen Myers, showed their support for what Rise Up For Peace is calling a "community healing and gun violence interruption".
"We can stop this if we all get involved as a community, one community to end gun violence," Myers said.
READ: Tampa city leaders and law enforcement coming together to stop gun violence
The event comes just days after 7-year-old boy Yitizian Torres Garcia was killed in a Fourth July shooting on the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
A bench at Ragan Park dedicated to victims of gun violence
"We are going to stand up against this violence, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that our youth have a constructive outlet for their energy."
According to the state attorney's office in Hillsborough County, 87 percent of guns reported stolen came from unlocked cars.
"How much easier can it be than to just click a button when you walk away from your car? Those guns are out on the street, and they're not out on the street legally, and chances are it's a kid, a teenager, that has taken that gun, and there is no scenario in the laws of the State of Florida that a 15 or 16-year-old can go and have a gun," Lopez said.
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Tampa Police are still searching for the person or people behind the deadly shooting.
At Saturday's Rise For Peace, a bench in Ragan Park was dedicated to gun violence victims with a plaque that reads, "To all those lost to senseless gun violence, you will always be remembered."
"Tampa and Hillsborough County are too strong and too good for this to happen. We don't want this to happen here. We don't want another senseless death like we saw on the 4th of July. Enough is enough. And it's time for us to say that," Lopez said.