NORFOLK. VA. — Norfolk City Councilman John Paige brought mothers of victims killed in gun violence together in a roundtable discussion to take back the community and end gun violence.
Mothers say it's a club they don’t want to be a part of. They say losing a child to gun violence is an unimaginably painful.
With it being the holiday season, mothers say this is a time to raise awareness.
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"No one wants to be in this club, trust me," Roycinda Alexander, a mother, said. "I never did but it’s something that’s needed."
Alexander says her 24-year-old son, Darren Gray, was shot and killed in Norfolk, a day before Mother’s Day. She says the killer hasn’t been caught.
"He was called to a birthday party and then three men jumped him, beat him and then he was shot by two men nine times," Roycinda said.
Samantha Peavy still grieves the loss of her daughter, Amanda.
"I lost her to gun violence on Valentine’s Day," Peavy said. "She was sitting in the car and waiting to go out to eat, to a movie, and someone opened fire on the car. He didn’t know anyone in the car and thought he saw a rival gang member. It was mistaken identity, and she was one of the one’s that didn’t make it."
She says the killer is serving a sentence of 45 years.
Norfolk Councilman John Paige says the roundtable is a part of getting a pulse on the community.
"It’s my firm belief that if we set up a platform for mothers to heal in the community, it opens up our entire community for healing," Paige said.
So far in 2023, there have been 39 homicides in Norfolk. That number down from this time last year. Norfolk saw 63 homicides in 2022.
Here’s what he says is one strategy the city is using that is working to combat gun violence.
"We have violence interrupters, a program that we’re expanding" Paige said. "The solutions are going to come from the same place the problems exist."
