MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities father is asking for community members to work together to make sure what happened to his child never happens again.
His 12-year-old is home from the hospital on Wednesday night they were shot in a stolen car with three other children in north Minneapolis last weekend.
“They ain’t no bad kids. They just misguided nobodies listening to them, but now that they got our attention what are we going to do with it?” the father said.
He added it’s time for the community to focus on the well-being of youth. He wants to speak out, but is concerned about the safety of his family. Because whoever shot at the car has not been arrested, WCCO is not naming or showing his face.
“For me it hit home. I go and talk to kids all the time but when it hit home, it’s like, I was so unconscious to my kid focusing on other peoples kid,” he said.
He sees his child getting in that car as a cry for attention in an area where there is no community center, no programming, no skating rink or arcade.
He says kids know and talk about the fact that there are no consequences for their actions. Because of that, he says he and other parents have been asking for help.
“The families been saying what can we do and all y’all saying is it comes from the house, it comes from the inside. You can have a kid whose family is perfect, you can get whatever you want when you want it, they still got to go to that bus stop they still got to go to that park,” he said.
He is calling on all parents to work together and hopes Zion Baptist Church’s Wellness Collaborative can help.
Marquese Armstrong, the deacon of Zion Baptist Church, believes what’s needed to change the direction of young people lies within community.
“Members of the wellness collaborative are here, we have mentorship program, we have life coaching, we have therapy we have rights of passage programs for not just the children but for the parents as well,” Armstrong explained.
This parent hopes the village steps up and helps provide what’s needed to help kids be kids again.
The father says the 12-year-old was supposed to be spending the night at a friend’s house.
He believes neighbors shouldn’t be afraid to speak up about kids behaving badly, and other parents should accept that help.
Reg Chapman
Reg Chapman joined WCCO-TV in May of 2009. He came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories for the station including the Coney Island plane crash, the crane collapse on the city’s east side, 50 shots fired at motorist Sean Bell by New York Police, and a lacrosse team assault at Fairfield High School in Connecticut.
