‘Peace Mobile’ brings resources to those affected by gun violence in Baltimore
By Khiree Stewart
Click here for updates on this story
BALTIMORE (WBAL) — City leaders are responding after Sunday’s shooting in Brooklyn left 30 people wounded and two dead.
The city’s new Peace Mobile brought resources to those impacted by the residual trauma of the tragedy.
“This is important for me to be here now, because this community went through a horrific, tragic, traumatic event. And I think everyone has to understand how important (and) how deep that is for this community,” said Mayor Brandon Scott.
City leaders said they are approaching gun violence as a health problem, and the bus provides immediate resources to residents with trauma.
“Provide a proactive approach before things like this happen. We’re in communities and then reactively, when we have incidents that are violent, that will impact our community, we bring the Peace Mobile as that sort of ambulance to service the community, repair it, and then leave a process behind that’s sustainable,” said Rick Leandry, manager of neighborhood stabilization and response.
Leandry said the bus offers board games, video games, WiFi, snacks and even a recording studio.
“They can record their own music, vent, let out their pain, and then when they leave the Peace Mobile, they’ll be in a different state of mind. They’ll be carrying a positive energy, a positive vibe,” he said.
The bus will also bring resources such as conflict mediation, mental health therapy and more.
Officials hope that engagement will prevent similar tragedies from happening.
“Bring them out here to see things so that we cannot just hear them, but see them with our own eyes as we go through helping this community heal (and) to think about what we as a city could have done better right before this incident happened,” Scott said.
Leandry said the Peace Mobile has serviced about 200 people per day since Sunday.
Police are still looking through surveillance video and ask anyone with information about the shooting to contact them.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
