Memphis nonprofit puts money behind drive to curb gun deaths

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tanita Hilliard made a wish the night a shooter livestreamed himself driving around Memphis, firing at people: “I hope it isn’t one of my babies.”

She paused the video to study the young man.

“I know that face,” she thought.

She sent a screenshot to some former students.

Is this him? she asked. It’s him, came the replies.

“Him” was Ezekiel Kelly, one of Hilliard’s former middle school students, now accused of killing three people, wounding three others and bringing the city to a terrified standstill that early September night. The shootings followed other high-profile killings in Memphis — a kindergarten teacher, Eliza Fletcher; a community activist, Yvonne Nelson; and the Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, a leader of the local conference of the United Methodist Church. Last year, Young Dolph, the rapper and businessman, was ambushed while visiting a bakery.

Even before Memphis, like other cities, endured a surge in homicides in 2020 during the pandemic, it suffered for decades from disproportionately high homicide rates. But the escalation in killings in 2020 seized the attention of many, including Patrick Lawler, who runs a large, locally based nonprofit. His response was to establish an ambitious program to reach people like Kelly.

For more than 35 years, Lawler's organization, Youth Villages, has counseled children with mental health or behavioral problems across the country. His organization had not worked with adults older than 25, much less potentially violent ones, and Lawler said he typically tried to avoid news coverage of local crime. But the latest killings pushed Lawler to a breaking point.

“I started asking around," he said. "What was our community doing to reduce gun violence, and why weren’t we more involved?”

In speaking with...