SAN ANTONIO – A day after a daylight drive-by shooting injured two people more community leaders on the city's East Side echoed Mayor Ivy Taylor's call to end the cycle of violence.
"If the people in the community don't care enough about themselves enough to make the change, its not going to happen," said Willie Mitchell, interim president of San Antonio Fighting back. "We have to create the change ourselves first."
Last month officers responded to 218 calls for service in the 78202 area code, which encompasses a large portion of the East Side. Nineteen of the calls were for assaults, 12 were for shootings, and six calls were for robberies.
A vehicle registered to Mayor Taylor and her husband's business, Marshall Bail Bonds, were hit during the shooting. "Anyone at any time can be touched by crime. Neither title, privilege, nor office make one immune. But that doesn't mean it's acceptable," Taylor said in a statement. "It's unacceptable for gunfire to be sprayed from a car in the middle of the afternoon or any day at any time of the day or night. We must continue to make the investments in people and neighborhoods that will change hearts and behavior to prevent these types of shootings."
East Side residents said the incident is an all-too-familiar occurrence.
"I'm not surprised," said R.C. Wilson. "Things have gotten a little bit better, but they're still bad.
"I'm not surprised at all being that two or three weeks ago there was another shooting down the street from here," said another resident who did not want to be identified. "Gang-banging has been here since the early 80s, mid-80s. You can never put your finger on one particular situation or cause."
In her statement, Mayor Taylor said she was looking forward to working on the issue through President Obama's, My Brother's Keeper Initiative. But Mitchell believes any meaningful change has to start with residents, both young and old, on the East Side.
"We're going to have to come together and organize ourselves. It's not just the adult population, we've got to get the youth involved," he said. "It's left up to the people in the community to address the issue."