ABOVE: Mayor Williams and Chief Yates at Monday Morning Friendly Town Ceremony in Lincoln Park
The City of Danville continues to feel the after effects of three shooting incidents this past weekend, which cost 22-year-old Ricky Dandridge, Jr his life in the Saturday shooting at the Towne Center Save-A-Lot; and wounded six others, including two juveniles walking in the 600 block of East Williams Friday afternoon.
During the Monday morning dedication ceremony for the updated Traffic Safety Education building at Friendly Town, Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr said major improvements must be made at home to stop future incidents like this.
AUDIO: It makes me incredibly sad that we have less than 1% of the population that continues harming one another, and making life hard for the rest of us. And unless, and until, we really give our kids the love and the nurturing that they need; but along with that the discipline and the accountability; we will, unfortunately, see more incidents like this.
The third shooting incident was Sunday morning in the 900 block of Lewis Lane; where, 19, 18, and 17-year-old males were wounded. Police Chief Christopher Yates says that if residents want to be safe, they need to speak up.
AUDIO: The history shows, on the cases that we have the most success on, are the ones that the community says “this isn’t going to happen in our town;” and they come forward, and they provide information. Danville is just going to have to stand up and say “we’re not going to tolerate this.” Because, I’ll tell you what, no matter how this all turns out; there’s several sets of families who are devastated. And that’s not acceptable to me, and it shouldn’t be to our community either.
Meanwhile, Project Success of Vermilion County has called a community meeting to discuss these local issues; scheduled for 6:30 PM this Thursday, May 7th, in the Laura Lee Fellowship House at 212 East Williams.
