DPD chief outraged after another child is shot in Detroit

DETROIT (WJBK) - It was another bloody weekend in Detroit and another victim of the violence is an innocent child who was shot while learning to ride his bike. He'll survive, but his dad, who was teaching him, will not. Police Chief James Craig has had enough and is calling on the community to rally together.

Craig talked to the media on Monday, saying the community needs to step up as he rolls out a new plan to fight crime. He wasn't alone: he was joined by pastor Maurice Hardwick from the Live In Peace movement and Brenda Hill from the Crime Stoppers Community Response Team.

Hardwick stood with the chief and asked people in the city to sign a peace treaty which you can read below.

"You cannot shoot this city up. You cannot kill our babies and get away with it," Hardwick said. "We're asking you to stop the shooting - immediately. We cannot have another child shot."

The 4-year-old boy was learning to ride a bike on Monica Street on Saturday on the west side. His 24-year-old father was right there with him when gunmen started shooting AK-47's at them. His father was killed but the boy will survive. Chief Craig said the young child may have been targeted by the shooters.

"Certainly we believe that the suspects certainly intended in some respects to shoot this child," Craig said.

The latest round of violence against children comes a week after 6-month-old Miracle Murray was killed outside a home on Winthrop. It's believed she was killed in retaliation for the death of 3-year-old Anaiya Montgomery on Easter Sunday.

Three men were charged in Anaiya's death and one suspect, Paul Kendall, hung himself in jail. One of the other suspects is 19-year-old Reginald Street, the brother of Miracle. Police are still searching for Miracle's killer.

"They took their time, they planned, they were strategic and they knew they were placing children in harm's way," Hill said. "We've had three babies. Two dead - since Easter. Easter."

Hill is just one of the community activists police are calling on for the project Take Back the Neighborhood. They're launching in the eighth precinct on Detroit's west side and call it a partnership and outreach effort involving law enforcement, neighborhood watch, radio patrols, and community empowerment.

Beyond that, Chief Craig wasn't saying much. He did say, however, that peace marches aren't getting the job done.

"They do not work. I'll say it again - they do not work," Craig said. "The key component is a willing community - a community that says we are partnering with the police department and together we're going to get this done."

Read Pastor Hardwick's peace treaty:

"Neighborhood Oath"
Peace Treaty
Pastor Mo L.I.P. (Live in Peace)

I will work hard and hustle hard to earn riches and wealth through entrepreneurship and educational skills, while building myself, my brothers and sisters to the highest and protect each other from all evil in our neighborhoods.  I promise to respect and honor the O'gs and the elders in my family, in my heart, and through my actions.

I am, my brothers and sisters' keeper, I will not murder my own people, I will not drink and drive, or drink and race understanding that a speeding car could be a lethal weapon, I will not smoke my life away robbing myself of career opportunities because of marijuana, neither will I pop pills to enhance my fun and popularity, I will not destroy my body, my mind or my life sipping lean. I will not fire a weapon in the city of Detroit putting innocent peoples' lives in harms way, realizing that an assault or murder is just a negative illegal way to settle a dispute.

I will seek a positive way to settle my conflict and not destroy my own hood with unnecessary violence.  Detroit is my city and I will represent it positively to the fullest.  I will not live the trap life. I recognize that robbery, stealing, slanging, banging, beefing, car-jacking, and social network disrespecting are set traps to a life in prison and free slavery. 

I will not honor the no snitching concept that protects and allows harm to my own kind, dishonoring my peoples lost loved ones.  I will not make the Detroit Public School System or Detroit Charter, or Private Schools a battle ground for violence and an embarrassment to the learning institution across the country because of negative statistics.  I will not let my set backs be my set up.  No more having babies before I'm ready to responsibly raise and provide for a precious life, male or female. No more putting rich entertainers dreams in front of my own dreams.   No more supporting any negative music that makes other cultures wealthy while destroying the mind of my own culture.

And last but not least above all things I will honor God and this Oath of Truth that speaks to power and uplifting of the kingdom and this great city because I realize I am and King and Queen  of the Kingdom and the great city of Detroit, so I vow to Live in Peace.