MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — We know so many of you are still heartbroken by the violence that took place on Jefferson Street over the weekend. The shooting took place several hours after TSU Homecoming festivities wrapped up.
Metro Police confirm, two opposing gangs exchanged gunfire. Marquez Davis and DeAnthony Brown, both 24, were arrested for Saturday's shooting. One person died and nine were injured, many of whom were innocent bystanders.
We thought it might be valuable, even important, to talk to someone who researches these types of situations to see if there's anything we can learn from it to prevent them in the future.
"If you don’t know why it’s happening, you won’t know how to help keep it from happening," said Carter Smith, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at MTSU.
Smith specializes in studying the activity of street gangs.
"The problem is not limited to this past weekend, the problem is not limited to downtown Nashville," said Carter.
Smith says, thinking this may have been an isolated incident or only involves a particular neighborhood, couldn't be further from the truth.
"Don’t think because it happened in Nashville, it’s only in Nashville. And don’t think just because it was down the street from Tennessee State, there’s only a problem in that area," said Smith. "It could have been Vanderbilt and it could have been UT Southern. Not to call out universities but let's be real."
So what can be done about gang violence?
"There’s no miracle cure for it. It has to be an ongoing, concerted effort by as many members of the community as are affected and are able to communicate," said Smith.
He also suggests solving systemic problems that drive people into gangs in the first place.
"Every dollar spent trying to fix the environment of the criminal activity that comes from gangs, is a dollar well spent," he said. "You have to make them not want it and give them better opportunities."
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
