ATLANTA — A woman said her brother complained about all the murders and burglaries in the apartment complex he had just moved into.
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Then, he was shot and killed.
Channel 2′s Tom Jones was in southwest Atlanta Thursday, where Chasin Homer was killed earlier this week.
Jones talked to Homer’s sister, Taqueria Barber, who said her brother’s death has put her on a mission to speak out about how gun violence destroys dreams and families. She said we need leaders to stop ignoring how Black men are killing each other every day and work to change the narrative that drugs and guns are cool.
Barber said her brother, who was 24 when he was killed on the 4th of July, loved his family and had big dreams after graduating from Atlanta Technical College.
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“Fourth of July will never be the same.: Let’s just say that,” Barber said. “You hear about this a lot, but never in a million years would you think it will happen to your people. It hits different.”
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Barber said her brother had recently moved into the apartments from Fairburn, and he realized immediately that it wasn’t safe.
“He would tell me every day, ‘These boys did something again. Somebody shot someone again. I’m tired of this,’” Barber said. “I’m just... You know we have to make a change.”
The change didn’t come quickly enough.
Now Barber is calling for change in the Black community.
“I have a message that I want all these young people to know: Don’t fight fire with fire. It’s an unending cycle,” Barber said. “Think before you act. Because after you act, that’s it. You’ve made a choice.”
She wants young people to know gangs and drugs aren’t the answer no matter what music and media tell you.
“There’s two paths you can take. You don’t have to take this path,” Barber said. “And because you took this path, someone’s life was affected.”
No one has been arrested in Homer’s death.
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