ATLANTA — Children and teens in Atlanta have been increasingly more involved in violence plaguing the city.
In just the last week, at least five young people between nine and 19 have either been killed or involved in violent crime.
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To help try and put a stop to the violence, a juvenile probation officer went to the Atlanta Fair Monday night where a 16-year-old was shot and killed just days prior.
“We trying to stop this gun violence. A little brother got killed out here the other night,” Bruce Griggs with Operation Correct Start Street Academy told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson.
Griggs says he’ll talk to anyone if it means he can save someone from being murdered.
He spent Monday night handing out flyers that ask things like “Are you avoiding things like guns, drugs and negative attitudes?”
Griggs says that as a juvenile probation officer, he’s seen too many children turn to violence as the only way to resolve a conflict.
“I work with kids on a daily basis. They stopped dreaming. They’ve gotten to a point of hopelessness,” he told Johnson.
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Joshua Adetanji’s family says he was going to the Atlanta Fair with friends when he was gunned down and had his life cut short.
Adetanji was a 9th-grader at Creekside High School.
Randy Wood, the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Fayetteville where Adetanji’s family attended, says the church is lifting the family up in prayer.
“Josh’s family’s in deep grief. And I know I would appreciate your prayers as would they,” Wood said. “He was a vivacious young man, energetic, seemed to enjoy life. He always was active, and was respectful.”
Griggs says he wants the shootings to stop not jut for the sake of the victims, but for those pulling the trigger too.
“A lot of these kids end up in these facilities. They they’re geniuses, they got so much to offer the world. But it gets buried over there,” he said.
Atlanta police are also begging parents, churches and non-profits to secure weapons and also talk to kids about violence.
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