The grandfather of an 11-year-old boy who was killed by a stray bullet in Washington, DC over the weekend, told “The Story” Monday that calls to remove the police “will not work” while the crimes Weapons-related increases continue in major US cities.
“You can’t take money from the police department,” said John Ayala, founder of the DC Guardian Angels chapter.
“We need the police. You get the police out of there and we end up having fewer police officers on the street and fewer detectives. It won’t work. Crime will get worse … if you start having fewer police officers, who will come when there is a need for police services? “
RESULT OF THE WEEKEND OF JULY 4 IN DEATHS OF SIX CHILDREN
Ayala made the comment two days after her young grandson, Davon McNeal, was shot dead while grabbing a phone charger on his way to a community meal.
Washington DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told reporters Saturday night that about five adult men shot at the area, hitting McNeal, who later died in a hospital. The cause of the shooting is not immediately clear, but DC police are asking for the public’s help in gathering information, including sightings of a black car that they say fled from a nearby alley.
“I think in cities, there are a lot of people who just don’t value life right now,” said Ayala. “They don’t realize that when you take a life, that life will not come back.”
Ayala joins five other American families and communities in mourning after shooting incidents over the weekend of July 4 that resulted in the deaths of six children, and the youngest was just 6 years old.
Activists who called to remove the police blamed law enforcement for their failure to “protect” the streets amid the wave of troublesome crime, but Ayala said a lighter police presence on the streets and in schools. it would be a “big mistake”.
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“Before you go after the cops when they hurt someone who looks like me, they need to chase people who look like me and who hurt people who look like me,” he said.
However, Ayala expressed support for funding alternative agencies to handle non-violent calls, some of which, he says, require mental health specialists.
Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
