Fatal shootings called ‘depressing’

People active in Omaha’s violence-intervention efforts expressed frustration Monday with the Sunday morning shootings that left three men dead.

“It’s frustrating, but it happens, and it happens in a big city,” said Ben Gray, an Omaha City Council member who is the emergency team director of Impact One, a violence-intervention group. “We just have to live through it.

“We’re going to review some things today to make sure everything we’re doing is on-point — from a city perspective, from an Impact One perspective.”

The city will experience spikes in violence from time to time, Gray said. “Hopefully, we can do enough things to offset it.”

Gray and others visit shooting scenes and hospital emergency rooms to gather information and talk with shooting victims’ friends and relatives to try to prevent retaliatory acts.

The first of the two fatal shootings, near 45th and Nicholas Streets, took place outside a party. Police said people who weren’t attending the party walked up and fired shots toward partygoers standing outside.

“It would be nice to know that these parties are going to happen, rather than be surprised,” Gray said. “It’s some of these house parties that generate problems.”

Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes said people should feel free to contact the police department’s gang unit at 444-5990 — anonymously, if they want — “if they hear of house parties or events they know are going on.”

Police officers can visit with the party’s hosts, Hayes said, to offer hints at how they can have a safe event.

As Sunday morning’s events showed, “Sometimes, gang members show up at these parties,” he said.

Mike Friend, the director of the State Office of Violence Prevention, said the news of the Sunday shootings was “depressing,” but said, “Rashes of shootings, going in cycles, doesn’t surprise me.”

With the weather improving and more people getting out, there’s more interaction, he said. “With more interaction comes more potential for confrontation,” he said.

Many people and groups across Omaha are spending a lot of time trying to address the violence, Friend said. This year, according to World-Herald records, seven of the city’s eight homicides involved a firearm.

“We’re at meetings every week. There are organizations on the ground. We’re driving our collaboration in north Omaha. Now we’re ramping it up in south Omaha. I’m confident that these things are going in the right direction ... (But) people have trouble seeing that when we have these types of incidents.”

Hayes said his department is taking several steps in response to Sunday’s shootings:

--The gang unit is working extra hours;

--The utility crew, available to address violent crimes or property crimes anywhere in the city, has been assigned to the areas where the shootings occurred;

--And traffic officers will concentrate on streets near the shooting scenes.

Also, he said, “If we know of people we think we’re going to have issues with, the gang unit does home visits.”

“Whenever we have a homicide we think is gang-related, we’re going to have an increased presence,” Hayes said.

Impact One’s executive director said the public needs to become vocal about the shootings: “It has to come to a point where people are mad,” Jannette Taylor said.

“These are young men and women being shot and killed,” she said. “It’s almost like it’s the norm. It wouldn’t be accepted in any other community, and it shouldn’t be accepted in ours.”

Gray and Friend said Omahans are welcome to attend the weekly meeting at the Family Housing Advisory Services building, 2401 Lake St., at 2 p.m. Wednesday. At the meetings, representatives from several community groups discuss the events of the past few days, get updates from police officials and look ahead to what could be happening the next weekend.

“It’s a very open, collaborative effort,” Friend said.

People who want to volunteer should be able to find a group that fits their skill set, Gray said.

Contact the writer:

444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com

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