Following a shooting Thursday evening that left a bullet hole in his Crown Heights campaign office, Senator Jesse Hamilton (D-Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope, Sunset Park) this evening marched with members of the community to denounce gun violence.
The shooting occurred on Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights just after 7 p.m. yesterday and left two men, a 31-year-old and a 16-year-old, shot, but in stable condition. According to police, no arrests have been made.
“The community is outraged at what happened yesterday, and what’s been happening throughout the city,” Senator Hamilton said in response to the incident. “The bullet hole in the doorframe of my office reminds us of how close my campaign staff came. How do you measure the cost of shattered peace of mind?”
Hamilton was joined Friday by other Brooklyn government officials and anti-gun violence advocates. Chanting, “Stop the violence, love yourself,” they marched around the block where the shooting took place.
Democratic District Leader for the 43rd Assembly District, Geoffrey Davis, whose brother, City Councilman James E. Davis, was killed by a shooter at City Hall in 2003, said, “I didn’t think after the murder of my brother that I would be killed inside due to gun violence again and again.”
“To these shooters, you’re killing me, you’re killing us, you’re killing the community,” Davis said. “We work hard each and every day to build the community, to lift the community up, and you pull out a gun and have a temper tantrum, and you’re shooting like a little child.”
Reverend Kevin McCall, Crisis Director for the National Action Network, at the march Friday called on members of the community to end gun violence in their neighborhoods.
“If your children have guns in their apartment, call us and we’ll come get the guns out of the apartment. You don’t have wait for the police department, this is our community,” Rev. McCall said.
“This is not a white issue, this is a black issue,” Rev. McCall said. “We cannot complain about other individuals if we’re hurting ourselves. This is not a Donald Trump Issues – Donald Trump don’t got nothing to do with us on this issue. This is us hurting us.”
