City, State, Clergy Gather Against Gun Violence

Before December, ​“I had never seen anyone die,” Addie Kimbrough told a room full of police, prosecutors, clergy, and politicians. Until, on the block where she founded a community garden, she witnessed a young man lying on the ground. 

He was the same age as her grandson: 24. ​“I saw them trying to revive him,” Kimbrough said later. That moment ​“touched me.” 

She found herself taking the mic at a community meeting calling for change and volunteering to help. ​“I don’t want this to happen to any of our kids.”

Kimbrough was one of about 100 people to fill the pews of First Calvary Baptist Church at 605 Dixwell Ave. in Newhallville Thursday night, for the Greater New Haven Clergy Association’s latest conversation on gun violence and interventions.

The meeting took place on the heels of a slew of homicides across the city, five of which took place during the first three weeks of 2023.

The crowd that gathered in Newhallville on Thursday included Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin, New Haven top state’s attorney John Doyle, local police leaders, and city staff, who presented on various ways they are planning to tackle the surge in gun violence in the early weeks of the new year.

The event included local clergy members, who pitched a forthcoming conflict resolution skills program.

And it included residents from Newhallville and across the city who spoke with urgency about a need for community-powered, school-based, and parent-driven mental health and behavioral interventions, among other solutions.

Top state prosecutor Griffin and top New Haven prosecutor Doyle both advocated for more stringent consequences and supervision for people convicted of ​“criminal possession of a firearm.”

Criminal possession charges would target ​“the most violent” people, Griffin argued. He cited data that ​“if you’re convicted of criminal possession of a firearm, you’re 8,300 times more likely to commit an act of violence than the general population.”

Both prosecutors praised Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed law reclassifying the possession of an unregistered magazine, also known as a ​“ghost gun,” as a Class D felony on the first offense.

When homicides occur, ​“we are invested in investigating and prosecuting those cases to the fullest extent possible,” said Doyle.

Meanwhile, New Haven Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli and Department of Community Resilience staffer Dijonee Talley outlined the city’s previously announced gun violence prevention plan, which combines community policing tactics, violence interruption programs, policing technology upgrades, and social services related to re-entry and mental health.

At the end of the meeting, attendees had an opportunity to voice their perspectives. Many called on police and prosecutors to employ more community-driven tactics.

“I feel like the mental health piece is the biggest piece,” said Taneha Edwards, who recently moved back to New Haven from Charlotte, N.C. People transitioning out of prison ​“go to probation. They go to parole. But what about the mental health?”

Gaylord Salters, who recently left prison after serving 20 years for a crime he maintains he did not commit, spoke about the importance of having people with lived experience in street life or in prison helming the initiatives to address gun violence.

While incarcerated, ​“I had to see generation after generation of Black men,” he said. ​“I’d recognize someone, but didn’t know who they were” — only to realize he was meeting the son of someone who had been incarcerated before.

New Haven Rising organizer Remidy Shareef implored police, ​“You have to take off your uniforms that’s connected to oppression and violence” when meeting with community members. ​“Come as fathers.”

Shareef also called on the Christian clergy present to connect with local Muslim leaders in future endeavors — a number of whom, including Imam Saladin Hasan of the nearby Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center, attended on Thursday.

And the meeting’s host and First Calvary Baptist Church’s leader, Boise Kimber, said he’s stopped hosting night services in light of the uptick in gun violence. ​“We can’t walk the streets no more.”

Kimber presented a plan of his own to address the violence, in collaboration with fellow church leaders and the Urban Community Alliance.

The Greater New Haven Clergy Association, which Kimber heads, and Urban Community Alliance announced a forthcoming pilot program called CommUNITY Ambassadors, which would impart conflict resolution and mental health skills to participants.

Kimber said he’s secured a $50,000 grant from an organization called Justice Education to fund the initiative.

“At the end of the day, young or old, it is the inability to manage conflict” that lies at the root of gun violence, said Pastor John Lewis, who would be involved in leading the program. ​“If we teach them how to manage conflict, if we teach them the value of themselves … that gun will start to bring a distaste to them.”