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The municipality’s latest homicide has left the councillor for Halifax Peninsula North saddened and offering his condolences to all those impacted by HRM’s continuing gun crime.
Lindell Smith warned those in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting of Regional Council that he might be “a little off” due to Monday night’s shooting death on Gottingen Street.
“We’re going through a tough time in the city, in this community,” Smith later told reporters. “It’s hard to see community members suffering, parents burying young guys…As government officials, we need to rally each other and say, ‘How do we support what the community wants?’ But that’s a really hard one to answer.”
Tyler Keizer, 22, was shot inside a car at the corner of Gottingen and Falkland Street late Monday night, later dying in hospital. Halifax police have ruled the death a homicide.
The councillor said he has a number of ideas for how HRM’s government can try to alleviate the increasing gun crime—but is waiting to speak with area residents before putting anything forward officially.
“I’m confident that once we really let the community lead, we’ll be able to make some ground.”
Keizer’s death is the twelfth homicide so far this year in HRM, and the third in the last 10 days. Shakur Oshay Trevez Jefferies, 21 was killed on Washmill Lake Drive on November 12. Two days later, Terrance Patrick Izzard, 54, was shot and killed on Cragg Street, just a couple blocks away from where Keizer was found this week.
Smith, who grew up in the Gottingen area, says he didn’t know Izzard personally, but that knew of his reputation as a guiding force for young people in the community who was “loved by people of all ages.
“He was a guy who didn’t bother anybody,” said Smith. “There are people who, he was their support person, or just that place they knew they could go and be around somebody. Now that he’s gone, I feel like some people are a little lost.”
Smith advised anyone affected by the violence to take advantage of community health and trauma resources, and not be afraid to ask for help.
“We’re all here and we’re all dealing with it, but as a kid you sometimes get very conditioned to what’s happening and you lose the reality of it,” said Smith. “Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I’m having a bad day.’ Just what I said to council, that today I’ll be a little off. I think it’s important that we recognize those things.”
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This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2016.
What a nonsensical response.
This isn’t about a community lacking something but about a bunch of kids who sell drugs and are fighting over turf.
Their community is covering up for them, not out of fear but because no one wants to “snitch”. The City and the larger community can do nothing if no one wants to provide the information required for the police to do their job.
Right now it’s isolated to a small group but then they will become more aggressive and we will see innocent victims like children shot accidentally – I reference the many problems in the US.
The “community” need to man-up and become a real community.
So I guess voting for people of color for the sake of color doesnt really make any difference in the lives of people of color…?
Why do you think he was elected for the sake of his skin colour? He won by a large margin, was involved in a lot of community related activities, and is well-liked in his riding. I’m sorry but I think that’s a shitty thing to say. No different than saying Hillary Clinton only lost because she’s a woman and that all white people are racist because Trump was elected. I know for a fact that pisses you off (me too), so why turn around and say the same type of shit to other people?
Let’s not beat around the bush, the metro article I read before this also relied heavily on the term ‘the community’… at least in the metro article it was pretty clear that they’re talking about blacks. I think it’s fair to say that the average black person has zero control over what’s going on here; I don’t think it’s fair to put the onus on them (or any member of the general public) to solve this issue. What’s more, the black community in this province HAS organized anti-violence marches and coalitions — how much more can you expect from a group of citizen civilians? This is a police issue. Unless you want to allow vigilante justice?
Just because the police have been unsuccessful in preventing the recent violence we’ve seen doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a good job. We’ll never hear about all the acts of violence that DIDN’T happen. But to remove the responsibility from the authorities and place it on ‘the community’ is ridiculous.