If Salem wants fewer shootings, it’ll take a community effort.
That’s the message that leaders shared at a town hall at the Elsinore Theatre on Thursday night, which featured a panel representing Salem police, neighbors and organizations serving young people. They spoke about the rise in gun violence in Salem, and what paths to a better future lay ahead.
The town hall, organized by Salem Reporter, sought to get to the heart of the issue with a special focus on the impact of violence on Salem’s kids and teens. Over 300 community members attended.
The event included presentations from five panelists: Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack, Salem-Keizer School District Security Field Coordinator Ken Ramirez, Marion County Juvenile Department Director Troy Gregg, Mano a Mano Executive Director Levi Herrera-Lopez, and Lynn Takata, chair of Northeast Neighbors.
Speakers suggested diverse solutions in response to questions from the audience: voting for politicians willing to fund community development, more public murals and efforts to curb gang graffiti, and programs to identify and intervene with the young men most at risk of becoming victims or shooters.
The speakers’ different perspectives held a central theme: Salem needs to do more for its at-risk young people.
“Many youth in our community are making mistakes. But a mistake shouldn’t define their life forever,” Herrera-Lopez said. “A lot of these youth end up being in places where they don’t see help and we really need to get that support around them.”
That was also clear through the voices of those who couldn’t be there.
“Sometimes, you go outside and you feel like you ain’t safe,” said a teen boy in the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center. He recorded his experience with gun violence to be played at the event. “It’s pretty hard. Sometimes I just meditate (to) myself: are we going to make it to 21?”
The problem
Gun violence in Salem has doubled in the past five years, with 20 shootings last year, according to the Salem Gun Violence Problem Analysis report. Salem police commissioned the study from outside researchers and published it in November. Read about its findings here.
Though the majority of shooters and victims are adults, the study highlighted a trend of increasing youth involvement, a focus of the town hall. One in five victims and suspects in shootings in 2022 were teens 17 and younger.
The number of local young people arrested for serious assaults has tripled in the last three years.
“We have an 11-year-old that’s in right now on attempted murder charges, from just this last weekend. And there were 12-year-olds involved in that as well, and it ties into gang-related behaviors,” Gregg said during the event. “We have a crisis right now.”
That crisis has killed teens in the community. Among the recent victims is 15-year old Matthew Newman who was shot and killed in northeast Salem in November while joyriding with friends.
Teenagers sharing their stories from the correctional facilities described losing friends in drive-by shootings, fights escalating into homicide and recovering from getting shot multiple times – all before turning 18.
One described a fellow passenger in a car getting shot in the head, covering him in blood.
“I’ve seen stuff I never could unsee and shouldn’t have seen at the age of 14,” he said.
In 2022, 20 people were shot in Salem, four of them fatally.
Over half of Salem’s shootings in the last year involved gang members as victims, suspects or both. Takata, chair of Northeast Neighbors, said that groups also disrupt public spaces, like parks in the northeast area, through graffiti and drug deals.
Ramirez said there aren’t enough places where young people are being heard. Covid, especially, reduced access to support networks and outlets.
“They’re kids. And we’ve gotta keep giving them support, and helping them and looking out for them in the best way,” Ramirez said. “I wouldn’t be sitting here if people judged me and casted me out when I was getting in trouble as a kid.”
Potential solutions
Womack said that combating gun violence starts with identifying who is most at risk, in order to intervene. According to the report, gun violence perpetrators and victims are mostly young men, ages 18-34. Latinos are disproportionately represented, making up about half of suspected shooters and victims, despite being 22% of Salem’s population. .
“This is not about the police labeling young men in our community as gang members. I am hypersensitive and aware of the impacts of doing that. This is about identifying risk, so that you can focus resources in the right way to lower the risk, which means you save lives,” Womack said.
He stressed that only about 200 people in Salem are active in gangs or groups and most at risk for gun violence.
Herrera-Lopez warned about history repeating itself. In the 1990s, he said that experts at the time deemed all young Latino men with certain styles of facial hair to be likely gang members.
He said that line of thinking led to zero-tolerance policies in schools and the community, including Measure 11 which set mandatory minimum jail times for certain crimes. He said it’s important to remember that the report also said that 80% of the shootings are by adults.
“I feel that, as a community, we have to decide what it is we want as an outcome,” he said, and that helping youth first can lead to reduced gun violence. “In my personal opinion, such a strategy cannot be led by law enforcement. Law enforcement needs to be a part of it, but it cannot be led by law enforcement.
Later, Womack said he agreed with Herrera-Lopez
“We’re not the police-department of the 1990s. There should not be just a flooding of a neighborhood with police, like dropping a hammer, to try to solve this problem. That’s not at all what I believe in or recommend,” Womack said. “The approach should be listening to people in the community most affected.”
Womack said that he wants to have a two-pronged approach, with a strong criminal justice system focusing on high risk areas and people, including investigating shootings and working to prevent them. But law enforcement should be targeted and limited, and community services in affected areas as key. He said there’s a gap of intervention for young men in the community.
The Salem Police Department has released a plan for addressing gun violence, including a 6-person team to investigate shootings.
Other panelists said that the effort should start at the community level.
“I would love, for us as a community, to talk about: what is our plan to maximize the returns of what I see as the economic engine of Salem that is northeast? What is our plan to make northeast Salem the best, most thriving neighborhood?” Herrera-Lopez said and, to cheers from the audience, “Why are lower income families in Salem not entitled to such first-world luxuries as sidewalks, or green spaces or streetlights?”
Takata said that, on the neighborhood level, impact comes from communication, clean ups, and having people present at parks. She said taking ownership of the public spaces in your area is essential, and providing opportunities to gather and do community projects like art.
“Don’t give me money,” said Gregg, stressing that the Marion County Juvenile Department has what it needs. “Get the resources into where kids need those resources, being able to connect with their culture, being able to connect with their community, and having that view where they can look forward and be excited about this.”
Gregg said that young people typically have guns because they feel like they need it for their safety.
“How do we make those youth feel safe? How do we get those youth connected into ways that they don’t feel like they’re forced into a situation where they have to carry a weapon?” he said.
Ramirez said there needs to be more focus on mental health, and judgment-free places young people can talk about what they’re experiencing and better understand consequences. He said that at the very least, people can vote for the candidates and funding they believe can help.
Each panelist was asked to share a parting thought.
“Make northeast Salem the best neighborhood in Salem,” Herrera-Lopez said.
“I would encourage everyone to reach out and connect with your neighbors,” Takata said.
“Get involved. Care, get involved. Be present. We truly do have a crisis on our hands, on so many levels, but be involved and let your voice be heard,” Gregg said.
“Remember that everyone needs someone at some time. Be that someone for somebody,” Ramirez said.
Womack said that most of the shootings are done by young adults, ages 18 to 34, who had troubled pasts with criminal history that put them at higher risk. “They need job opportunities and interventions that are effective for them. There’s a gap for that in our community. How do we have outreach and intervention for young men in our community?”
Watch the town hall here:
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
