ST. LOUIS — Just since June, 10 children in the St. Louis area have been shot to death. Most of their murders remain unsolved.
“It’s devastating,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said.
5 On Your Side asked Krewson what can be done to stop the violence impacting kids.
“There's no quick fix. If there were, we would have done it,” she said.
Mayor Krewson said she learned through a text message Friday of the latest child killed in the city. Eddie Hill IV was shot in a drive-by shooting. He was just 10 years old.
"It requires law enforcement, but there was a policeman a block away or a block and a half away when this occurred,” Krewson said.
In addition to the police and de-escalation work already going on, Krewson said she’d like everyone who has a gun to be required to have a permit.
In north St. Louis, the youth ministry Urban K Life is doing work leaders there believe could be part of the solution.
James Treadway’s job is to build relationships with kids.
"When you have relationships with someone, someone knows that you genuinely care and love them, then you can have strong impact,” he said.
He builds that foundation by going to parent-teacher conferences, helping kids set up bank accounts, introducing them to sports and the arts and teaching them about faith. He says they’re like family.
"We definitely are talking about the violence and the murders that's going on in the city, but not only talking about it,” he said. "We try to get in there and do something about it"
One of the children killed this summer was Myiesha Cannon, a student in his rap and poetry class.
She was soft-spoken and smiled a lot, Treadway said.
“Just that demeanor would have an impact on you because some people never see people smile at all,” he said.
He wants to change that, and hopefully, change the futures of a lot of his students.
"If we could love each other the correct way, then we could help each other find our sense of purpose,” he said.
Urban K Life is always accepting donations to support their work. You can donate at https://urbanklife.com.
