Peoria’s Don’t Shoot Program was introduced to twelve new young men Tuesday night. They were invited to stop shooting and change their lives, or face the maximum possible legal prosecution.
But the call-in comes after two juveniles have been shot and killed in the last two months.
Peoria Police Chief Jerry Mitchell says the Don’t Shoot message and program is undeterred. “We are going to have setbacks. We are going to have homicides- gun related, gang related, group related homicides. I don’t know if we’ll ever get rid of them. But the focus has to be to cut them way down.”
This was the sixth Don’t Shoot call-in since the program’s inception in 2013.
Peoria Sheriff Mike McCoy says 53 people who didn’t believe the previous messages have already been sentenced. He says further, the Don’t Shoot law enforcement and prosecution team is 100 percent successful on indictments and convictions: “If people pay attention that need to pay attention, they understand that it is not a game. The community is tired of it. You know a 12 year-old kid, come on, let’s get serious! That’s not the kind of community we want to live in.”
12-year-old Demarcus Payne was shot and killed earlier this month. His murder is still unsolved. A 17-year-old was shot and killed last month.
The young men in the call-in are all on probation and were chosen from a database for their likelihood to shoot or be shot. They were asked to share the message with their friends and offered a point of contact for life-changing social services.