The Syracuse Police Department is continuing to investigate a shooting that resulted in the death of a Syracuse teen.
Fifteen-year-old Karon Works was shot and killed in Syracuse earlier this week. His death is one of a handful of child gun violence deaths in Syracuse this year. Mayor Ben Walsh said the number of children losing their lives to gun violence is horrific, but not a unique issue.
“If there was an easy solution, we would be doing it,” Walsh said. “The reality is, the challenges that we face here in Syracuse are being faced in every city across the country. But as I always say, while we are not unique in the challenges we face we want to be unique in the way in which we face them.”
He says the city’s new Safer Streets Program, which offers mediation and resources to community members with the highest risk of turning to violence to solve conflict, and working with community partners has been positive in keeping Syracuse safer.
“I do think that what we are doing with our Safe Streets Initiative, the way that we are engaging with both our community partners and those who are most at risk, we do have a chance to move the needle,” Walsh said.
He said it’s important that these violent incidents do not become normal in the community.
“As I stressed to our community partners, this isn’t normal,” Walsh said. “And unfortunately it has become normal in certain parts of the community. But we can’t normalize it, we can’t accept it as being normal.”
