MILWAUKEE — Two people have been shot and killed and another four injured on a stretch between 47th and 45th streets near Hampton Avenue within the past week.
Since Friday, within a 23-block stretch, eight people have been shot on Hampton Avenue and three have died.
Previous Coverage: Teen dead, three others injured in separate double shootings in Milwaukee
Previous Coverage: Neighbors outraged after quadruple shooting leaves 1 dead, 3 hurt near Milwaukee stores
Previous Coverage: One dead in double shooting at 69th and Hampton Friday evening
"I'm tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of losing friends," said Jennifer Navarro, a concerned parent who lives in the area.
TMJ4 met Jennifer last Friday shortly after a quadruple shooting left one person dead and three hurt. She has personally experienced the impact of gun violence, as have her children.
"My son lost his best friend three years ago in a shooting over marijuana," Navarro said.
She believes the best way to slow down the violence starts with family and friends. Her methods have focused on putting the phone down, turning the television off, and having conversations with her kids.
"It starts at home, all the family members, if the mother is not willing to, if the father's not there, the grandmas, the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, you are obligated. You are required to give that child the basic knowledge they need to navigate through these hectic and dangerous and murderous streets," Navarro said.
Watch: Neighbors talk solutions to gun violence on Hampton Avenue following deadly week
While TMJ4 was near both shooting scenes Tuesday, 414Life was in action. It's a violence interruption team with a focus on building community relationships.
"We get more families, and more people that are involved in the peace work that we're doing, then what happens is that we have an opportunity to change the community down," said David Sinclair, Outreach Supervisor at 414Life.
The organization uses a public health approach to trying subdue gun violence.
"We know violence is a contagion and so, and because it's a contagion and it spreads, the public health approach is to make sure that we are making sure we get in front of where the violence is spreading from and try to tackle some of the root causes," said Sinclair.
Through those relationships, people like Sinclair can offer resources addressing the root causes that can lead to people choosing violence.
"A lot of the problems we identified in this area is housing is a lack of housing issues, poverty, you know we got high level poverty in this area," Sinclair said.
For both Navarro and Sinclair, it starts with conversations among neighbors, friends, and families.
"If we reinvest in the families of these communities, I believe that some of the violence and that will calm down due to the connectedness and interconnected and interdependence of one another that are in these communities," Sinclair said.
Navarro thinks that education about gun violence needs to start early with classroom speakers tackling the difficult issues.
"We need to start younger and younger, go down to the grade schools. Let's do public service announcements. Let's get out here and be in these streets," said Navarro.
She'll continue to push for safer streets for her children and for her community.
"Our families in Milwaukee, we are capable, and we are strong enough together to hold our children together," Navarro said.
Navarro wants to put together a town hall with community leaders, activists, police officers, social workers, and more to talk about solutions.
This story was reported on-air by Mike Beiermeister and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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