Mayor holds summit on curbing youth violence

Curbing Jacksonville’s youth violence is the goal of a large community conversation that happened Thursday night.

The summit comes just days after police arrested three teens for the murder of a cab driver. Mayor Lenny Curry walked through that neighborhood with JEA officials and other city leaders and we were there with him.

It's a neighborhood Curry said has been neglected and he's now changing that by asking JEA to install LED lights in hopes of keeping it safer.

April 23, 2015 is the day Angela Robinson's life changed forever. That’s the day she said her daughter Shelmika Felton became an innocent victim in a drive-by shooting.

Months later, Robinson is still waiting for answers.

"It's like I'm in a dream and I'm still woke," Robinson said. She believes the shooting of her daughter was gang-related.

Gangs are a violent reality in the neighborhood. Mayor Curry and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said finding new ways to combat them are why he hosted the community violence forum.

He stopped through one District 8 neighborhood, telling the neighbors change is on the way.

"We will begin to use the power of the city, to begin to clean up neighborhoods and let them know that we care about them," Curry said.

Beginning next week, JEA will install led lights throughout District 8 an effort to stop the violence. Beverly McClain with Families of Slain Children said that's a start.

"Rally around our mayor and find out what's the solution," McClain said.

Robinson said this small change won't bring her daughter back, but at least it is something positive being done to put a stop to the sort of violence that took her daughter's life.

"My daughter meant the world to me, she meant the world to me. And for somebody to just take her life like that, it hurts. It hurts," Robinson said.

Cox Media Group