Jul 7, 2021 / 11:24 PM EDT
COLUMBUS (WCMH) Local advocacy groups are banding together saying enough is enough, urging people in Columbus to put the guns down.
A rally held Wednesday night comes after the city faced a violent Fourth of July weekend with shootings and its 105th homicide.
It was organized by Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children and many people shared their stories.
One of the speakers was Tyrae Walker, an incoming high school junior, who talked about how gun violence impacts his life as a young person in the city.
“When we were watching the fireworks, I kept thinking there’s a possibility that I could die today and it’s a very sad reality,” he said.
Columbus is already on track to beat last year's record number of homicides. As of Friday evening, 81 lives have been taken in the city in 2021. doubling the number of homicides this time last year. Friday night, people met at the Ohio Statehouse for an "End the Violence" rally. "A mother who loses a child to murder, we will never be the same," Malissa Thomas-St. Clair, founder of Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children said. "My son is in a box..
In an impassioned plea for the violence to end in Columbus, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said Monday that the city and the police department can t raise people s children.
The statements came two days after 16-year-old Olivia Kurtz was killed and five other teens were wounded in a shooting around 11:50 p.m. Saturday during an unauthorized DJ party at Bicentennial Park along the Scioto River. Put the guns down, Ginther urged at the press conference outside City Hall, less than a mile from the still active crime scene.
Olivia Kurtz was an honor roll student who studied Japanese
Minutes before Ginther spoke, Columbus City school leaders spoke about Kurtz, an honors student who studied Japanese, and the classmates who are mourning her loss.