As part of what was called a Joshua walk, those attending walked around the Middletown City Building, which symbolized the entire city seven times and offer prayers to improve the conditions in the city and hope that God brings peace and goodwill to the city, Bailey said.
“We strongly understand that the underlying issues to our community in Middletown is poverty… some of us want to say ‘shush,” Bailey said “We say we must address it.”
He also noted that most of the people involved in the shootings are young men ages 18 to 25 and that four incidents were related.
Bailey credited several community organizations for their efforts in helping to address various social issues in Middletown.
Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said that over an eight-day period, there were seven shootings in four separate incidents with 50 rounds fired. Two people have been arrested and two more are being sought. He also asked for the community to help bring peace to the streets.
He said the guns involved are off the street and the investigation is continuing.
“We need to get this fixed and I’m confident that it will,” he said
Pastor Dave Wess said the three areas of focus were praying for poverty to go down and employment opportunities to increase, to pray for the end of heroin, alcoholism, prostitution and human trafficking, and that the violence go away.
“We’re walking for peace,” he said.
Lindsay Chapman, of the Middletown High School Social Justice class spoke, noting that homicide was the leading cause of death for African American men. She said of the 2,500 black men who died as a result of homicide, 2,300 were due to gun violence.
“It saddens my heart that is what’s killing our young black men in America,” Chapman said.
She commended the city leaders and community for coming together and added, “We’ll come to a solution to this problem and we will achieve that with peace.”
Pastor Mark Monroe said, “We still have to fight and be in the trenches and try to educate the community that violence is not the answer…. love is the answer.”
“We’re going to get through this together, …. we’re going to endure this we’re going to get past this and we’re going to take back our community,” Monroe said.
Wess said he was happy with the turnout and added he would have been happy if only two people showed up for the walk.
Muterspaw was pleased with the turnout despite the freezing temperatures. He said while some may scoff at such an event, it helps to unify the community.
“Good things happen when good people get together,” he said. “You have people here that are so different but they are here for a common cause.”
City Manager Doug Adkins said, “We need the help of the community. This is not a problem we can arrest our way through.”
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