Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and religious leaders gathered at the Experience Christian Center to discuss next steps after a shooting in the Pine Hills neighborhood took the lives of three people on Wednesday.
The panel was closed to the media, but Bishop Derrick L. McRae says the goal of the meeting was to simply begin the conversation around combating a rise in gun violence.
McRae said that’s why his church will not only hold a vigil for the three victims of the shooting, but a community conversation open to the public next Thursday.
“We know that it takes more than policing to prevent violence, and just as we have come together before we commit to doing our part to ensure that we stand in the gaps," said McRae.
But Orlando community activist Lawanna Gelzer says she’s skeptical.
She said the fact today’s meeting was closed to the public, led by all men, and held at 11 a.m. means a large part of the population is being left out of conversations.
“Hear the cries of the community," said Gelzer. "Don’t say you speak for the voiceless, but you don’t even talk to the voiceless.”
An Orange County Citizens Safety Task Force was started in 2020 to identify solutions to prevent and reduce gun violence.
Still, last year a mass shooting left seven people wounded in downtown Orlando, and a string of shootings at area schools have been tied to gang violence.
Sheriff John Mina says the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting was a gang member, but targeting gang violence alone won’t save lives, and targeting people with mental health issues won’t either.
“I have family members who have mental health issues but that doesn’t mean you go out and you start randomly shooting people," said Mina. "I think we need to separate that a little bit.”
In the short-term, Bishop Derrick L. McRae begged residents to speak out against a proposed bill that would allow qualified Floridians to carry a concealed weapon without a permit and without training.
“We do, however want to ask that our state legislators there in Tallahassee, we asked them not to pass the gun laws as they stand now, that would make our communities less safe," said McRae.
A motive is still unknown in Wednesday's shooting.
