MADISON, Wis. — There’s grief and anger in Madison following Tuesday’s shooting, spurring community leaders to act.
It happened Tuesday night at the Harmony at Grandview Commons apartment complex. Police say several people got out of a vehicle and started shooting multiple rounds. Several teens were hurt, and a 15-year-old-girl died.
Jazzman Brown is the founder of Feeding the Youth, an organization that provides food and essentials to those in need. When she heard of the shooting that killed a teen girl and wounded others, she knew she needed to help.
“We’re here to support our community in any way we can,” Brown said. “I know that grief is hard for everyone and as a kid who hasn’t quite learned how to process their emotions, I can only imagine how hard grief is.”
Wednesday, Brown was at Madison East High School to have a safe space to talk and grieve, and write letters to the family. They launched balloons in the victim’s honor.
“There were lots of tears, lots of kids who were just in disbelief,” Brown said. “Lots of kids who just were hanging out with her yesterday or the day before and how it could have been any one of them.”
Police say the shooting is part of a problem the department is trying to fix. According to Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s office, police have reduced shots fired incidents by 16% this year.
But Shameka Harper, a development manager at Urban Triage, said more needs to be done.
“We all know what the issues are,” she said. “We need to have some real solutions that aren’t just right now in the moment. They need to be ongoing so that we can be sure that we can avoid issues like this again.”
Since the shooting, Harper and her team have jumped into action. Staff have been visiting schools in the area to provide support, and they’re taking it further by planning a town hall to get input from community members.
“Right now we need the community to be heard, we need the community to feel supported, and we need to make sure that everyone has a voice,” Harper said.
She said organizations like Urban Triage can only do so much.
“We really need to talk to the people that are living there day to day in the communities and find out what they need that would be a helpful resource so that they feel comfortable combatting the violence,” Harper said.
While Brown’s organization was founded on a different mission, she said it’s everyone’s duty to support the families and kids impacted by this tragedy.
“Grief takes time,” Brown said. “They need time, they need space, they need support. They need to feel loved and they need to have safe spaces to express how they feel.”