NEWBERRY, S.C. — It’s officially been one year since a shooting took the lives of 4 Newberry teens.
Mykain Davis, Jahquindon Toland, Jhisere Robinson, and Sonterrious Davis were all shot on Eleanor and Wise Street in Newberry on May 22nd, 2022.
One year later the community gathered to remember those lost.
“Losing any child to gun violence is horrific but however losing 4 was tragic, we're here today to honor those lives but to remember that work still needs to be done,” says City of Newberry Councilmember, Carlton Kinard.
He was shocked by the tragedy that struck his community, but he says it’s led to the city making changes to make the community safer.
“We're glad to work together to bring more security cameras within our neighborhood and within the city and when it comes to entrance points to the city,” he adds.
Amir Cromer is one of several educators who has organized The Haven Newberry, a community group that offers activities to middle and high schoolers, he says the group was in the process of forming but when the shootings occurred it made them speed up the process after realizing there needed to be an outlet for the kids.
“That situation definitely inspired us to speed it up a lot more, we realized the kids here didn’t have much to cling to, the purpose of The Haven was to provide these kids with some opportunities, this past summer we had a leadership conference for them and we have plenty of people in the community they can look up to that they can network with and learn from and grow," Cromer says.
Jack Logan who organized Monday’s event said shootings like this are happening way too often and he’s hoping as those gather, the violence will end
“I don’t want to see another teenager or child that we have to put on a banner to remember them by gun violence,” Logan says.
As of the last update back in September, three suspects had been charged in one of the killings.