Cameron Knight, and Rebecca Butts

Cincinnati

Anne Murphy of Westwood and her husband, Daniel, had just tucked their children into bed on a warm March night when they heard the "pop, pop, pop" of a gun. She looked out the front window of her home on Epworth Avenue and saw 23-year-old Eric Scroggins shot and bleeding to death.

"It was just heartbreaking," Murphy said. "It was disturbing of course to have that happen on your street but it was heartbreaking thinking about him and even his assailants and the circumstances they were in. It was hard to stomach in a lot of ways."

Once the initial shock wore off, the questions arose.

Was her family still safe in Westwood?

"Should we move? "Should we get away from this?"

"It made me mad to even have the thought," Murphy said. "I like my house and I like my neighborhood and I'm not going to feel like I need to leave. Not without a fight anyway."

Murphy and her neighbor, Dave Stockton, started a block watch. They organized neighbors to look out for each other and report suspicious behavior. They work with police on safety tips and how to report crimes.

They are fighting to make their community safer.

They are working in Westwood but it is a fight they share with those in other communities who are determined to reclaim their streets from the lead and blood that marred many neighborhoods in 2015. They are gearing up with plans to "turn a corner" this year.

With 479 shooting victims, Cincinnati saw a 28 percent rise in the number of people shot in 2015, compared to the previous year. Though not close to the peak of 88 in 2006, homicides were up nearly 13 percent with 71 people killed.

Cities throughout the U.S. saw similar increases in shootings, many with higher rates than in Cincinnati. Indianapolis broke its previous record with 144 homicides and 447 nonfatal shootings, a 24 percent jump from the previous year.

In early January, Mayor John Cranley announced that reducing shootings is a top priority for 2016 and officials plan to host community meetings at each of the five Cincinnati police districts.

The city has its crime-reduction programs: the police department leads the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, which analyzes crime data to share with community groups; the Cincinnati Human Rights Commission, whose workers often arrive at shootings and talk to those involved to prevent future violence.

Now residents are stepping up efforts at the neighborhood level.

"I feel more committed and entrenched in the neighborhood because of [the shooting]," Murphy said.

She is also involved in a new initiative, Westwood Uniting to Stop the Violence, which takes an approach based on data to reduce shootings.

The neighborhood with the most shootings in 2015 was Avondale with 52. But Westwood was number two with 46 shootings.

Here's where city's shootings occur

"We want to call Westwood residents to take a role in turning the tide on violent crime in our neighborhood, focusing on shootings," said Mary Jenkins, president of the Westwood Civic Association and a leader in the initiative.

Westwood organizers identified three priority areas: Harrison and Boudinot avenues, Harrison Avenue and Fischer Street, and Harrison and McHenry avenues. These are where the bulk of the shootings, drug deals, thefts, and other crimes occur, Jenkins said. The initiative will work with police and community members in January to come up with strategies targeting crime at those locations.

"If you take a fatal or nonfatal shooting and you find out everything you can know about it, it's extremely likely that other crimes fed into what ultimately became a shooting," Jenkins said. "Whether it's a drug deal gone bad or a dispute over territory, there are other crimes that lead up to it."

In the West Price Hill area, Patti Hogan hopes to reach young people before they turn to crime. Teens are offered jobs helping clean up neighborhood parks and streets.

“It amazes me how these kids are propelled by anger,” she said. Hogan explained that she wants to show them another way by teaching them to talk out their problems.

Another group, Realistically Educating Healthy Male Attitudes or REHMA pairs young boys with male role models. Robin Hill, who runs the program, knows all too well what happens when young people choose a life on the streets.

“I’m victim of homicide, and I’m a mother with a broken heart. I say that I’m a victim because my son was murdered in 2007 in Bond Hill," Hill said. “My son was a dope dealer. My son was touched by the lord at a young age, but my son chose to do what he did."

In Avondale, where a 6-year-old girl get shot while playing outside over the summer, the focus is on providing resources to people before they enter a life of crime.

"Shootings are occurring for a variety of reasons," said Ozie Davis III, executive director of Avondale Comprehensive Development Corporation. "Poverty and the inability to address it is one of the greatest reasons we have crime and violence in the urban core. Everything we do is shaped around bettering the quality of life."

The organization works to connect residents with resource providers such as food and clothing pantries, and job providers.

Volunteers with the Brothers Gonna Work it Out program work to spread ways to resolve conflict and pass out corporation's resource list. In 2016, Davis hopes to host events so resource providers can meet residents in person. There will be music and grill-outs to attract the community.

Pastor Ennis Tait of Church of the Living God in Avondale is relaunching Project Nehemiah Ceasefire, an anti-violence initiative that has been present in Cincinnati for several years. Though, Tait said the program faded out about seven years ago.

The Ceasefire program is based on five pillars: outreach, community engagement, spirituality, criminal justice and public education. The group organizes community events, advertising campaigns, job fairs, prayer walks, rapid responses to shootings and establishes long-term presence of outreach workers at hot spots.

Mitchell Morris, of Avondale, said offering resources to people before crimes are committed is the key to preventing and reducing them. People need help getting jobs, and if necessary getting back into school.

Morris runs the Phoenix Program at the nonprofit Cincinnati Works. He and his small team of workers offer Cincinnati Works' job training and placement resources to people who want out of a life of crime.

The Phoenix Program's most high profile work is showing up as soon as shootings happen.

As soon as police say it is safe, workers go under the police tape, and speak to those affected by the violence – parents, friends, loved ones – for support and to prevent retaliation.

"The start of a reduction to gun violence and shootings is a clear depiction that it is not accepted in your community," Davis said. "We are trying to diminish any excuse a person can have and offer up an opportunity that a person can decide to take advantage of over succumbing to violence. I think we are going to start turning a corner in 2016. It just takes time."

On mobile? Tap here to see where the gun violence is in Cincinnati.