Good morning…….

A young man is found shot to death, sitting in the front seat of his car.

Three people head to the hospital after gunfire in an east Salem parking lot.

At a Northeast Portland bar, two men involved in a fight fired off several rounds from a gun. One person was shot.

This all makes it more important that as a community we pull together to address this grave threat to Salem’s safety.

I invite you to join us for our Town Hall on Gun Violence, rescheduled from January.

The new time and date: 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15.

We’ve assembled an extraordinary panel of experts and local voices. They’ll give you an unvarnished look at what’s happening in Salem and why. But they’ll also give you hope – and share how YOU can be part of tackling this threat.

Our team at Salem Reporter is doing this as a community service. We want you to leave the evening both informed and engaged.

The panel:

•Police Chief Trevor Womack – Salem Police Department (15 minutes) 

•Kenny Ramirez, Security Field Coordinator, Salem-Keizer School District (10 minutes) 

•Troy Gregg – director, Marion County Juvenile Dept. (10 minutes) 

•Lynn Takata – board chair, Northeast Neighbors (10 minutes) 

•Levi Herrera-Lopez – executive director, Mano a Mano (10 minutes) 

Capital Community Media will broadcast the event live on Channel 21 and stream it online.

We have arranged for an interpreter to do real-time translation into Spanish. We have about 50 headsets available for use at the Elsinore at no charge. Please help us get out the word on this service.

This is free and open to the public.

DATE/TIME: 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15. Doors open at 5 p.m.

LOCATION: Elsinore Theatre, 170 High St. S.E.

FREE TICKETS: Available online

NOTE: New tickets are needed for staffing purposes; tickets from January won’t work.

LEARN MORE: Editor’s note

I look forward to having you join us on Feb. 15 and encourage you to spread the word. If you have any questions, reach me directly byy email: – [email protected].

–Les Zaitz, CEO and editor