Gary grapples with surging murder rate

GARY, Ind. (WLS) -- After a 15-year-old girl was among those shot and killed this week in Gary, Ind., city officials are addressing escalating crime and violence. The city also plans to hold a National Night Out gathering to promote peace.

By this time last year, there had been 19 murders in Gary. This year, it's already up to 34. City officials said they can't turn around that trend by themselves.

"It might be easy for someone to say that it's not working," Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said.

Four years into an anti-violence initiative, Gary is struggling with a surge in murders. There have been five people killed in the last week alone.

Among the dead is 15-year-old Deja Brookshire, who was shot in the back Monday in a drive-by shooting. On Sunday night, it was Valerie Gonzalez's daughter.

"My 10-year-old son got killed in 1990, and now I'm going through it again. I always thought our kids were supposed to bury us and we're not supposed to bury them, but it looks like that's not the way it goes," Gonzalez said.

Gary's surge in violence has police vowing to continue unpopular gun and drug sweeps. Police are also proactively reaching out to potential victims and criminals.

"We've identified our top violent offenders throughout the city. We call them in and we give them a strict message: that the shooting and the violence has to stop. We'll help you if you let us, but we'll stop you if you make us," Gary Police Chief Larry McKinley said.

"Know your neighbor. We need to be able to know exactly who lives next to us, who lives up the street, and bring the sense of community back," Gary City Councilman Ron Brewer said.

But none of it will bring back Gonzalez's 27-year-old daughter.

"I just hope whoever did this will turn themselves in because they took my child away from me and away from her two children," Gonzalez said.

So far this year, 20 officers have left the Gary Police Department - many of them for higher-paying, less dangerous jobs in other communities. Mayor Freeman-Wilson said she will lift overtime limits for Gary police officers and she plans to propose an increase in police and firefighter pay.