WFAE
Mourners lit candles in remembrance of Butler High school student Bobby McKeithen, who was killed by another student who brought a gun to school in 2018.
The Mecklenburg County Health Department is moving forward with plans to establish a violence interruption program in hopes of stemming violent crime, especially gun violence, in Charlotte.
Plans for the program have been in the works since January 2020, but its rollout was delayed by the pandemic. The county now says it has selected a national nonprofit called Youth Advocate Programs to implement the program and hire its staff in the coming weeks.
Mecklenburg County's deputy health director, Raynard Washington, says the goal is to hire five to seven full-time violence interrupters plus two caseworkers and initially focus on the Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle Street corridor.