‘An evil vs. good thing’: Wrens comes together after violence

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – People in Wrens gathered together for a prayer walk and to voice their concerns about the recent violence in the area.

This comes not long after Khia Shield was shot and killed in her home. People are speaking out and say change is long overdue. ‘

“This is not a white vs. black thing, this is not a black verses white thing; this is an evil vs. a good thing,” said Chief of Police John Maynard.

This is causing people to be extra cautious.

“Within the last year, we’ve had some of the greatest crime and gun violence that we’ve ever had in this county for as long as I can remember, you know, and I’ve been in this county kind of all my life, you know, 66 years, and I’ve never known for it to be in the situation, the shape that it’s in,” said Minister Charles Washington.

Leading the community to strive for change.

“You know, there’s a lot going on in our county right now. And, you know, we got to get somebody to step up and come out. And that’s reason why I came out to support our youth, and support this gun violence that we got to stop and support the victims that, you know, have fallen,” said Eugene Cunningham, Director of Jefferson County Rec Department.

These tragedies hit to close to home for to many families.

“My nephew, he was shot and killed about two months ago. I think like, June the second. And you know we have heard a lot of gun violence going on. But you know, yeah, it hit home and when they hit home, it struck our family. And you know, and I know about the pits family, I know how they feel, and I know what they’re going through, you know, and it’s something that we know, we got to stop it, we just got to stop it,” said Cunningham.

But working together is the way they home to move forward.

“We look at it and what can we do about it, three things we could do about it, we can either be proactive, you know, reactive or inactive. So today, what we’re trying to do is come up with some solutions where we can be proactive,” said Minister Charles Washington.

They plan on having this at least once a month, and their goal is to get younger generations to participate in order to really make a difference.

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