MUNCIE, Ind. — Indianapolis’ Ten Point Coalition leaders spent Monday night in Muncie after a few deadly weeks in Muncie.
Reverend Charles Harrison said when he got the call from community activists in Muncie, he knew he needed to get the ball rolling to try to help the community.
Monday night, Harrison, former IMPD Chief Rick Hite, Ten Point members and Muncie community members walked the streets of some of Muncie’s most troubling neighborhoods. Harrison and others are teaching Muncie residents how to get to the bottom of violence by understanding the underlying issues of what is going on in their community.
“We have to get a feel for what actually is occurring. Who’s involved in the violence? Is it drug related? Is it gang related? Is it clique related?” Harrison said.
Community activist Marwin Strong is leading the effort to bring an organization like Ten Point to Muncie. He’s hoping to call it the ‘Enough is Enough Movement.’
“Muncie has always been great, but when you see 3 murders, 3 murders as well as heroin, have swept Muncie, Indiana like never before,” Strong explained.
Strong is hoping to get other volunteers to walk the streets on a regular basis and get to know members of the community, much like Ten Point does in Indianapolis.
“It’s really going to take everybody, pretty much, it’s really going to take the real people, who’ve been there, done that,” Strong said. “A lot of these young men, they may have felonies, they don’t believe they can get jobs, but we’ve gotta find an alternative for them.”
Walking along with the group was Bobbi Phillips. She lost her son Eddie to a shooting last October.
“I hope that we can really find change around our neighborhood, because it has gotten totally out of control,” she said. Phillips added, “we can literally walk block for block and someone’s passed on each one of these blocks due to gun violence.”
Two recent Muncie murders were found to be connected. Jeffrey Brown was killed in a field execution-style. Court records show he was a suspect in the death of Joseph Johnson. Last week, Alonzo Williams was arrested for the death of Brown. Police said they are still actively investigating both cases.
In another recent murder, Police have arrested multiple people for giving false information, but no suspects for the death of Zachary Farmer. Police are offering a $3,000 reward for information in this case.
