A man born and raised in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood is not only saddened by deadly gun violence last weekend, but he’s calling on his community to make a difference.
“We’re all one or two people removed from these things happening,” Julian Khan with Neighborhood Connections said.
In just 24 hours, three men in their early 30s died from gunshot wounds.
Cleveland homicide detectives are now investigating what one city leader believes was not random.
Khan spends his days making connections in his neighborhood.
Both on the street and going door to door at homes and businesses.
“Small moments like that help us to renew our vows as residents,” Khan said.
The greater Buckeye neighborhood is his heart and soul, and he says people who live there want the same as anyone else.
“People want safe neighborhoods, they want good schools, they want food access. These sorts of incidents really put us two steps behind the starting blocks,” Khan said.
Around 9 p.m. Friday, police got a call for a man who was shot on East 108th Street.
Cleveland firefighters were trying to save his life when a second man was found nearby inside a car with gunshot wounds.
Neither of the men survived.
The next day, a third man was found shot and killed in the area of Woodhill Road and Holton Avenue.
Police got wind of that shooting through ShotSpotter technology.
“All indications look like these people knew each other; this was not random,” Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin said.
Griffin says he’s been on the phone calming fears.
“That is something we don’t tolerate. Our Buckeye-Shaker community is thriving,” Griffin said.
Griffin says investments have been made in housing, business and people.
News 5 asked Khan what kind of reaction he’s been getting about the deadly shootings.
“Outrage, outrage,” Khan said.
Khan says he has a good sense of the root cause.
“All of the crime, the shootings, all of these things are really a reflection of the impoverished nature and behavior that riddle and complicate neighborhoods like this,” Khan said.
Toni Johnson is a seasoned social worker with more than 35 years of experience. She’s also a longtime Buckeye resident and Khan’s mom.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” Johnson said.
Johnson says the culture needs to change for young men and believes society should be preventative, not reactionary.
“They need you know, maybe they could have used some other opportunities, maybe we could have done something prevention-wise instead of what we’re doing now on the back end,” Johnson said.
Both Johnson and Khan knew one of the men who died through church and school for Khan.
Khan says it’s a complex issue that needs complex solutions and believes it’ll take a community to walk it forward.
“How do we get both of them into this aspirational space where we can start to think about what we want and focus on who cares enough to act,” Khan said.
No word of any arrests in either case. Police say they are still investigating.
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