Providence Mayor holding community prayer on Carolina Ave following shooting

PROVIDENCE, R.I (WLNE) – Mayor Elorza held a community prayer Friday morning following a mass shooting that sent 9 people to the hospital on Thursday.

The prayer took place on Carolina Avenue where the shooting occurred.

Dozens of leaders from across the state stood side by side, pressing for changes in the wake of gun violence.

“We as a society can’t allow this to happen and have the power to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Mayor Jorge Elorza said.
Police say the shooting happened between two groups of people who were familiar with each other.

All the victims were between 19 and 25-years-old.

Cedric Huntley, the Executive Director of the non-violence institute said the hospital looked like a battlefield. He and his team of support staff stayed with the victims throughout the nice, reaching out to family members and offering help.

“Hunderds of doctors, nurses, safety teams, security teams were there. It was unbelievable. In all my 20 years, I’ve never seen a scene like that,” Huntley said. “We have to continue to see our young people and give them hope. We have to continue to educate them through opportunities and resources and jobs.”

Mayor Elorza says the problem boils down to gun violence and that there are far too many guns on the street. Thursday night, police found at least four to five guns and 20 to 30 shell casings at the scene of the crime.

“Almost to a ‘T’, every single officer would tell me the same thing— they would shake their heads and tell me there are too many guns out there,” Mayor Elorza said.

Now he’s calling on lawmakers to make a change.

District 6 Senator Tiara Mack says the problem goes deeper than guns.

“I think it’s really easy to categorize this as a gun problem, but I think the problem is more endemic then one isolated incident,” Senator Mack said. “This is a community that has had schools failing for several decades, generations of seeing the lack of investment in communities really show up in our young people.”
At this time, no suspects have been apprehended.

©WLNE-TV/ABC6 2021