Williams
Council Member Jumaane D. Williams (D-Brooklyn), Deputy Leader and co-chair of the Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, released the following statement after the shooting deaths of 28-year-old Zavon Gordon on Thursday night and 38-year-old Gerald Cummings Wednesday night. Both incidents took place in Brooklyn. Gordon, a van driver, was killed after an altercation with another driver in East Flatbush. Cummings was killed in Flatbush after retrieving a cap that was stolen from his 17-year-old son.
I’d like to offer prayers of peace and comfort to the families of the victims. Even more disheartening is the fact that neither one of these men had to die over the simplest of issues. Gun violence is an unfortunate and frustrating reality that many communities have to deal with. A father retrieving a son’s stolen cap, and a driver cutting off another should not lead to death. We must take time to call out this obscene violence each and every time, and never allow any community to become desensitized to the senseless loss of life.
These murders happened on the day the City announced that shootings, and murders dropped to historic lows. In Brooklyn alone, shootings have plummeted by 23% from last year. Still, statistics don’t mean anything to grieving families. These incidents are a grim reminder that we cannot rest.
We must stay strong in the face of this continued assault on our quality of life and recognize that each of us has a role and responsibility to help reduce the senseless violence in our city and nation. These incidents make it apparent the increasing need for commonsense gun legislation, as well as, policies and resources that go to the heart of the root causes. Gun violence is a pandemic across the country, and is infiltrating our cities. How long will the nation sit idly by as this problem grapples our communities?
