Fulton DA, Atlanta mayor sit down exclusively with Channel 2 about joint plan to tackle gang crime

ATLANTA — In an exclusive interview with Channel 2 Action News, Atlanta’s mayor and Fulton County’s top prosecutor detailed a joint game plan for attacking gangs crime.

“Public safety is the number one thing that I’m dealing with, making sure that the public is safe and ultimately that means dealing with the gang issue,” Mayor Andre Dickens told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne.

“I’d say 80% at minimum and probably more like 90% of all of the violence that we are seeing is stemming from the gang problem,” Fulton DA Fani Willis told Winne.

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Willis said she and Dickens have come together for a game plan for going after gangs.

“The first part of our game plan is to make sure that we are on a frequent communication basis,” Dickens said. “We talk about issues and we also go pretty deep into the details of it from blocks to streets to gas stations and apartments.”

“We speak both formally through meetings where our offices collaborate as well as the police chief for the city of Atlanta and we also have informal conversations,” Willis said.

Channel 2 Action News has reported on plenty of gang allegations recently. After Winne’s interview with Fulton DA, her office said it now suspects the Jan. 24 murder of 6-month-old Grayson Fleming-Gray was the result of a gang-related shootout in which the child’s mother’s vehicle was caught in the crossfire.

Dickens consoled the baby’s mother at the scene.

“Everyone from each and every community that I talk to, from the southside to the northside and all the places in between, they want the violence to stop and that means curtailing the gang activity,” Dickens said.

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The DA’s Office reveals it has confirmed in the May 2020 murder of Kevin Humes that three suspects, two 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old, were gang affiliated.

Willis said in their talks that the mayor has agreed with her hard line: that violent gang members need to go to prison. However, their game plan involves intercepting young kids before the gangs get to them.

The mayor mentioned programs like Midnight Basketball at the Promise Center and alluded to working with Atlanta Public Schools.

“Summer youth employment trying to get them to make money in a positive way, but for those gang leaders and these gang members that have decided that this is their life, then we gotta make sure that we alter that by sending YOU into jail,” Dickens said.

“We know we have to save our youth, but the other thing that we both agree on is that these people that are committing committing violence, I’m taking a hard stance on them and prison is where they’re headed,” Willis said.

For resources for programs, an aide said the mayor’s office is doing what it can with the budget to increase resources for instance for the at-promise centers.

The mayor suggested more money is needed to solve this problem and more hands, helpers, volunteers and mentors.

The DA’s office said Willis believes more resources are needed for prevention and both she and the mayor are advocating for that at every level.

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