Every 10 days, a child in Cincinnati is shot. Children 'become numb to it'

In Parkland, Florida, 32 students were shot in about six minutes. A burst of horrific violence. Of the 17 who died, 13 were under the age of 18.

It's shocking. It may be the impetus for change. But children are shot all the time.

In Cincinnati, on average, someone under the age of 18 is shot every 10 days.

In the past seven years, 245 juveniles have been shot in Cincinnati. Of those, 27 have been killed. This set of data, recorded by the Cincinnati Police Department, does not include suicides.

Two-hundred forty-five: That number represents children playing with guns, youth violence and stray bullets. It also represents a cycle of violence and trauma.

Officer Eddie Hawkins works as a school resource officer and is the former president of the Sentinels Police Association representing African-American police officers. Part of his job is helping students heal after violence touches their lives.

"Gun violence is no longer looked upon as a horrific thing," Hawkins said. "(Children) become numb to it and it becomes normal."

In June 2016, an anti-violence march was staged in Over-the-Rhine. As the march left Findlay Market, gunshots rang out and Justin Clutchfield ran out into Vine Street and collapsed, shot in his chest.

Cincinnati police Lt. Col. Mike John attended the event. He recalled seeing a woman pushing a stroller around the body as if it was any other obstacle. For him, it was a sign of apathy, seeing people not stop to help, seeing others treat it as a normal occurrence.

"That's not normal," John said. "We have to redefine what normal is."

On Feb. 20, 2003, 15-year-old Arick Hudson, 14-year-old Michale Swan and 15-year-old Jatavan Swan were walking to a South Fairmount apartment when gunfire erupted. Arick was killed, Michale was paralyzed, Jatavan was hit in the shoulder. 14-year-old O'Bryant Carr was convicted in the attack. He said the trio bullied him. Twelve years later in 2015, 6-year-old China Kinebrew was struck in the head by a bullet intended for Carr. He is her sibling's father. She lost her left eye and was left paralyzed by the second bullet that struck her chest.

John, the Cincinnati officer who witnessed the 2016 shooting at the OTR march, said he realizes that his culture and background can make it harder for him to connect to different parts of the community. That doesn't stop him and other officers from visiting schools to talk about the issues.

"For some, telling an authority figure is not an option. They wouldn't survive their childhood if they did that," John said.

John said he doesn't know how to fix apathy.

"When I was hired, it was a 'them and us' mentality," he said. "That's not healthy."

Now, he said the department is laser-focused on those who cause harm rather than attempting to be an omnipresent force.

He said he wishes he knew when he started, in 1997, what he knows now. That it's trauma and culture and so much more complicated than some think.

"I would have been a different officer," John said. "We have to build that community trust back up."

On May 3, 2014, Malik Peeples was in Walnut Hills near Reading Road when he was shot. He was 17. He told police he did not know who shot him. No arrests were made in the case. In Feb. 2017, Peeples was arrested and charged with murder in the death of Donald Campbell, who was shot and killed in Mount Auburn. Peeples has been held in jail on a $1 million bond for more than a year while his case proceeds in court.

Dr. Mike Gittelman, co-director of the Comprehensive Children's Injury Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said doing any work to address gun violence is polarizing. He's advocating for the safe storage of firearms as something everyone can support.

"Some say the safest house is one with a gun," he said. "Some say the safest house is one without a gun."

This isn't a Cincinnati problem, he said, it's a national problem. In 2010, nearly 2,000 people under the age of 20 were killed by firearms in a homicide or unintentionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There is federal legislation not allowing gun research to be done," Gittelman said. "Legislators and others need to start to say that this is truly an epidemic."

In July 2015, Martaisha Thomas, 4, was at a cookout on Ridgeway Avenue in Avondale with her godmother. A man leaning out of a car window opened fire into the crowd. Martaisha was struck in the head. She survived. Darnell Hicks, 22, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the shooting.

Last May, 10-year-old Christopher Foree was walking back from the store with his older sister, Damiah Davis, and her 2-year-old daughter when gunfire exploded on Forest Avenue in Avondale. Davis pushed the stroller out of the way and pulled Christopher to the ground, but it was too late. The boy was struck in the neck and the hand. No arrests were made in the case.

Pastor Ennis Tait with the Church of the Living God in Avondale ran to Christopher when he was shot. His church is nearby. Tait has been working to fight gun violence for years.

He said it's going to take parents, pastors, police and more to keep children safe. He said the areas most affected by gun violence need to be flooded with positive things for children to do, as a recovery method and a deterrent.

“We don’t want to have to see our children become victims in order for us to work together to make life better for them," Tait said. "When children don’t get a chance to reach their potential, it takes the life out of people. Parents are drained of life."

Ozie Davis, an Avondale community activist, said violence against juveniles is an area that is not getting enough problem-solving attention from the community.

“It’s a rude reality, the risk that the kids in our neighborhood take on a daily basis,” Davis said. "When kids get shot, it really sends a chill through everybody."

In 2012, Khyren Landrum was walking to an Avondale park. A gunfight erupted and Khyren was caught in the crossfire and struck by a bullet. He was four.

Recently, Davis went took Khyren to a baseball game.

"Fireworks went off," he said, "and he was jumping."

In January 2017, 9-year-old Alexandrea Thompson was fatally shot as her father struggled with a gunman who had stormed into their Mount Auburn home. The family said Thompson may have been struck by a bullet that passed through her father's body. A year later, Azuriah Hoskins Jr. and Ke'von Smith were charged in the slaying. Hoskins was 17 years old at the time of the attack.

Children who have friends or classmates killed in shootings always want to know as many details about what happened as they can, Jan Phipps said.

Phipps has worked as a social worker in the Cincinnati Public School district for 15 years. She said the details seem to help children cope. Cincinnati Public Schools provides on-site trauma counseling. Phipps worked with students after Alexandrea was killed.

“The children are resilient,” she said. “They are kind of used to this. I think they have more skills than some of the adults."

This isn't a good thing, she said. Many students don't bounce back, especially if they don't have strong support at home.

“It’s heartbreaking that children have to pick up the pieces and move on,” she said. "It’s a travesty that children have to go to school and know that their friends are gone."

Last March, two handguns were left in a shoebox inside a West Price Hill home. A 3-year-old found one of the weapons and accidentally shot the 17-month-old daughter of Cortez Reed. Reed, allegedly in the bathroom at the time of the shooting, grabbed the guns and fled the house. In August, he was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for child endangerment.

Pastor Peterson Mingo, outreach program manager for the Cincinnati Office of Human Relations, said kids don't think people care about them. An attitude Mingo and others are working to change.

“They don’t think police or schools are going to do anything to help them," he said. “They’re afraid. It’s fear.”

He said that fear leads some young people to lash out violently to perceived threats.

“They retreat into themselves and go into survival mode,” he said. “It’s not even fight or flight, it's do unto others before they do unto you."

In March 2017, Michael Chichester was killed in Winton Hills. During the attack, bullets smashed through the walls and windows of an apartment. Shanika Jones cowered with her children inside. She said the repeated shootings have given her 6-year-old son post-traumatic stress disorder. "He'll wake up in the middle of the night saying there is blood on his hands," she said.

There have been no juvenile shootings in the city since November. However, in the four prior months there was an average of one per week.