ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County Commissioner Tavares Bostic used his comment time during Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting to denounce recent violence in a local neighborhood.
Bostic said he had received a couple of calls regarding a shooting in the Little Philadelphia community, which happened Monday evening.
According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, several vehicles and a home were shot into on Ellen Drive and vehicles in a driveway on Patterson Road were also damaged.
Bostic said it was “very, very unfortunate,” but a conversation that Little Philadelphia and other communities need to have.
“My public plea to the citizens in Little Philly is to please work with the sheriff…and all of law enforcement to try to correct some of the issues that bring this type violence to our communities,” Bostic said. “There are certain establishments … in some of our communities that breed this type of violence. And so I’m looking for the community in Little Philly to step forward and force some of these establishments out of our communities.”
Bostic went on to say that there is a large older population in Little Philadelphia and he hopes residents will stand together and offered his assistance.
“Whatever I can do to help in this effort, I will,” he said. “If it’s coming out, if it’s talking to the citizens, talking to certain establishments that’s out there, I’m willing to do that.
“Now is the time we take control of our communities. The violence absolutely has to stop,” Bostic continued. “We have to stop killing each other. But it’s going to take a collaborative effort from the community as well as the sheriff’s (office).
While he mostly referred to the Little Philadelphia community, Bostic also referenced other areas that have been recently marred by violence.
The Rockingham Police Department responded to shootings in the Cauthen Drive area on June 9 and 15 and the sheriff’s office investigated a shooting just across the tracks at the corner of Mill Road and Long Drive on June 18.
Two men have been charged in the latter shooting and, as of July 1, investigators were still trying to identify a third suspect.
Rockingham Police also responded to shootings on Hunter Circle June 9 and 16.
Three men were shot on Thomas Street in Hamlet in May. Chief Dennis Brown said Thursday evening that the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation charged a juvenile in the case.
There have been several other shootings, including three homicides, since January.
“We now have to band together in order to get the violence out of our communities,” Bostic said. “Now is the time that we all stand together against anyone who comes into our communities that’s looking to kill the people — that look like us … And we can only really rely on each other in these communities to get this thing right. Work with our sheriff, let’s try to get this thing done.”
