Heartbreak spreads across families as gun violence takes two more young people in Sarasota
SARASOTA, Fla. - With an increase of shootings in Sarasota, Tawana Spann knows all too well the heartache of a mother who's lost her son.
As the crimes involve younger children, she is asking the community and leaders to raise their voices to help end the violence. She hopes others hear the message before another child is lost.
Before they could even begin their lives, a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old in Sarasota lost theirs to gun violence this week.
"We can point fingers at what should have been [done], but instead we need to look at what needs to be done," Tawana Spann said.
Since December, there have been six homicides in the city, four in North Sarasota and Newtown. Two have taken the lives of teenagers. Police say the shooters of those two teenagers are also teens.
RELATED: 2nd teen arrested in shooting death of 17-year-old in Sarasota
Tawana Spann's son, Jabez also died from gun violence. She says she's not an advocate, but she started the Jabez Spann Foundation to help other families who have fallen victim to violence.
Jabez went missing from Newtown in 2017. A farm worker discovered his remains in a field in Manatee County nearly a year and a half later.
"I just know that I’m a person that went through something I would never wish on anybody and I just don’t want nobody else to go through it," said Tawana Spann.
She believes some of the violence can end with prevention, including programs that keeps kids off the streets and involved in the community.
RELATED Three years since Jabez Spann's disappearance, Sarasota police still want answers
"There is just a lack of resources in the urban communities that could change a lot of different things," she said.
As the Sarasota Police Department works to increase officers in areas in the city, positioning them where crime is happening, Vice Mayor Kyle Battie echoes similar concerns.
"We can do all that we can about guns, but make no mistake about it. It’s not the guns. It's the heart. We have to do everything in our power and use every resource disposable to cultivate the heart," he said Monday in front of the City Commission.
While Tawana Spann knows crime cannot be completely eliminated, she hopes the right actions are taken quickly, to prevent another mother from carrying preventable heartaches.
She said so many young lives are counting on it.
"It is time to have some hard conversations and through hard conversations open up dialogue and through dialogue open up solutions," explained Tawana Spann.