Families Advocating Safe Streets planning new solutions to curb gun violence in St. Louis
By DEION BROXTON
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ST. LOUIS (KMOV) — The number of people killed in St. Louis streets in 2021 was less than 2020, but organizations like Families Advocating Safe Streets want to keep driving that number down.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department reported 194 homicides in 2021, 263 in 2020 and 192 in 2019.
“The reduction in homicides comes from a lot of different places,” said Saint Louis University Criminology Professor Kenya Brumfield-Young. “We can look at things like people getting back to work, there’s less pandemic stress. I think it’s too early to look and say this is the one thing that’s driven it down.”
Families Advocating Safe Stress told News 4 it wants to continue this progress. The organization held its first end-of-the-year homicide vigil Friday without its founder Jeanette Culpepper.
“Don’t matter what they were doing. It’s the fact that their life was lost through violence,” said Oscar Brown, brother of Culpepper and one of FASS’s board of directors.
Brown said the group is working with a consultant to introduce new solutions in 2022.
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