Miami leaders hope to end violence plaguing city

Group proposes 4-tier program they call 'a state of urgency to save our community'

MIAMI – Local religious leaders are joining police in calling for an end to a recent string of shootings that claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy in Miami.

A meeting was held Monday morning at the 93rd Street Community Baptist Church, and the message was basically enough is enough.

The group is proposing a 4-tier program they call a "state of urgency to save our community."

The program will begin with a prayer vigil at three parks throughout the city Monday night, followed by a problem phase to discuss, in several different places in the next couple of days, crime issues. There will then be an opportunity to have records expunged by the state attorney's office, ending with helping those people without jobs get employment.

"It's high time that we had this kind of leadership to come out to reach into neighborhoods, to families, to communities, to try to work with law enforcement so that we can help communities," Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. "We can save lives, make cases and get these terrorists off the streets."

"We are responsible-- to remain silent is just as bad as almost being a perpetrator," the Rev. Richard Dunn said.

Leaders said they know everything can't change in a day, but said better something changing than nothing at all.

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