Brownsville city leaders respond to party shooting

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. — City leaders respond to the weekend gun violence in their community after multiple shots were fired Friday night, injuring 10 people during a party where high school students were present.

In the wake of the violence, city leaders attended Haywood High School’s basketball game and held a moment of silence for the victims.

Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls and members of the Save Our Streets coalition issued a call to action.

“We must become more aware of where the young people are, what they’re doing, what their activities are so that we can be there, we can have representatives there and we can have more police protection there,” SOS chairperson Dorothy Bond said.

Bond has worked with youth for over 40 years as a school administrator and said this incident is something they’re not taking lightly.

“We are so sorry about what happened on Friday night with the young people, and we’re very concerned about it,” she said.

A spokesperson with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said of the 10 injured, two victims were expected to be transported to Regional One in Memphis with non-life threatening injuries, while one person is still being treated in Jackson. The other seven were treated for their injuries and released at area hospitals.

Local leaders said they won’t let Friday’s incident deter them from ending violence in the community.

“Nothing will stop us from trying to keep these young people safe, trying to keep our community safe,” Bond said.

After reaching out to the Army National Guard for comment on current and future safety precautions, officials said they felt confident all policies and procedures in place were followed but will be taking a closer look at internal processes.

The Save Our Streets committee will have a private strategic planning meeting Feb. 2 with Mayor Rawls to discuss ways to keep the community safe. After that meeting there will be a town hall scheduled at a later date.