Note from TMJ4 Anchor and Reporter Shannon Sims

Over the last 10 years, I have talked to families who lost children to gun violence. I’ve also talked to families of children accused of pulling the trigger. But rarely do I get an opportunity to amplify voices of youth caught in the cycle of violence, and those working to disrupt that cycle. That is what I hope to do with Beyond the Bullet. It should serve as a conversation starter for people directly and indirectly impacted by gun violence.

My hope is that you can take something from this program and apply it to the communities you live and work in. Because gun violence is not just a Milwaukee issue. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. As a community, we need to support and protect the next generation.

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WATCH:

A mother's heartbreak: Celeste Cummings

The bond between Celeste Cummings and her son, Raul, was one she thought could never be broken.

"He was my best friend," said Cummings. "He's all I had. It was me and him. My ride or die for real."

Celeste remembers that feeling of excitement when she learned she was pregnant with Raul.

"I fell in love with that boy in my belly before, I think it was six months," she said.

After she gave birth, she made a vow.

"I remember changing his diaper and letting him know I'd always protect him. I'll never forget that day."

She would get just 5,840 days with her youngest child. On July 25, 2023, her 16-year-old son became the 15^th child shot and killed in Milwaukee this year.

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“I fell to my knees screaming and screaming,” Cummings said. “I rushed to where it happened. It’s still unbelievable to this day. Why mine? In the end, mine is gone and it hurts like hell.”

Cummings said the trauma of losing a child is unbearable at times.

"I'm just numb now. Numb to the world, to everything, everyone. He's my world," sobbed Cummings.

She now spends her days protecting and polishing the urn that holds her son’s ashes.

“I would do anything in this world for him to not be where he is today. I know it’s not possible, but sometimes moms still have that hope for something they know they can’t get.”

From teacher to healer: Dr. Megan Schultz

Dr. Megan Schultz is an ER pediatrician at Children's Wisconsin. She has seen a lot working in the trauma bay. During her first week in the emergency room back in 2016, she says she treated three kids for gunshot wounds.

“I remember coming home to my husband saying, ‘This is not what I am used to.’ I didn’t know I was signing up for this,” said Dr. Schultz.

Seven years later, the number of children admitted for gunshot wounds has not slowed down.

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"We are seeing a 15-year-old who thinks it's cool to have a gun and accidentally shoots himself in the pocket,” Dr. Schultz said. “We are seeing the 2-year-old who finds grandma's gun underneath the car seat and accidentally shoots himself in the head. We are seeing these sorts of drive-bys ‘I was playing on the playground, and I was shot!’”

Before becoming a pediatrician, Dr. Schultz was a schoolteacher in Baltimore, Maryland. She decided to change careers when one of her favorite students, Tory Smalls, was shot.

"I learned that he was at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in critical condition, and I visited him," Dr. Schultz said. "Seeing Tory hurt in that way, in such a needless way, I think that was the moment 'I could be a doctor and help this way.'"

Over the years Dr. Schutlz says the pressure to save young lives has taken its toll on her and other first responders. Over the summer, she wrote an opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, calling for stricter gun laws.

She says after the op-ed, responses poured in.

"What I was surprised about was the amount of comments I got from first responders,” said Dr. Schultz. “There's so many of us who have been traumatized by seeing this gun violence and seeing its havoc it reeks. I don't think we really talk about that enough as a country."

Trapped in the cycle: Youth from the detention center

When kids in Milwaukee County get caught breaking the law, they are typically sent to the Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center. Outside of attending school daily in the detention center, a small group of high-risk youth participate in the Milwaukee County Accountability Program, known as MCAP.

David Muhmmad is the deputy director of Milwaukee County’s Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees MCAP. I talked to him about interventions and prevention resources the county is investing in to break the cycle of violence and help turn around the lives of youth.

Disrupting the cycle: 414LIFE

Tackling gun violence starts on the streets. 414Life, an initiative under the city’s Office of Violence Prevention, works to de-escalate tension before it spirals out of control.

James "Compton" Price is a 414LIFE violence interrupter. A lot of his work is outreach. He believes building trust and visibility in vulnerable neighborhoods with the highest rates of gun violence is an important part of reducing violent crime.

"We don't judge anybody,” Price says. “We don't judge any situation. Our main thing is to make a connection. We feel the best way to reach someone is to meet them where they are at."

Incarceration to inspiration: Todd Jones

Todd Jones knows firsthand how one irrational decision can change the course of your life and the lives of others.

At 15 years old, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for shooting and killing a man. That decision cost him his youth and the early years of adulthood.

Now at 42, he is determined to keep the next generation from making the same mistake. He has become a mentor at Paradigm Shyft. The non-profit recently received funding from Milwaukee County to work with at-risk youth. The goal is to stop kids from stepping before a judge, or worse, becoming repeat offenders. Jones says the work has given him purpose, and he plans to do right with every moment he has.

"Let them catch you being good,” Jones said. “Let them observe you being the opposite of what they have grown to become familiar with and not trust. You can't take off because that one day you take off maybe the day-to-day was vulnerable enough to open up to and tell you, ‘Hey, this is what it is. ‘"