National Night Out event in New Haven offers comfort to community

This city’s commemoration of the annual National Night Out Tuesday in Edgewood Park carried a special meaning for a community mourning the recent shooting death of one of their own and reeling over other shooting victims that followed.

The friends of Tyriek Keyes, 14, were among those who gathered in the park on a beautiful summer’s evening.

Tyriek, who had just completed eighth grade, was shot repeatedly on Bassett Street July 16. He died four days later.

Then on July 22, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the area of Shelton Avenue and Ivy Street. He survived.

The day after that, a 21-year-old man was shot in the face on Walnut Street.

The crimes galvanized the neighborhoods. Police arrested a man in the wounding of the 13-year-old.

While planning this year’s National Night Out, New Haven police officials worked with community groups such as Life Changing Outreach Ministries, the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center and Tunnel Vision to get kids into the park and send them a reassuring message.

Kimberly Artis of Life Changing Outreach Ministries noted police brought vehicles such as the SWAT Team “bear cat” to let kids climb around inside and bond with the officers.

“Youths need to know the police are here to make you feel safe, not to cause division,” Artis said. “This is a chance to see them in a different light.”

Standing nearby Artis, Assistant Police Chief Luiz Casanova agreed that while “we’ve had a challenging few weeks, with the shootings,” people should not forget that crime has been down in the city for the past few years.

Casanova said the police department’s approach has changed in recent times, with an emphasis on community policing. “We’re not throwing out a net and stopping everyone. We have to go after individuals. We know who they are. We have to do this together, with the community.”

Casanova added, “We’re doing a lot better than other cities that look like us.”

But Kejuan Simmons, 15, who was one of Tyriek’s close friends, was not comforted by any such reassurances as he stood in Edgewood Park.

“He was like a brother to me,” Kejuan said. “It’s like losing another half of me.”

“Another body,” he said. “When can we stop this? What do we have to do to stop the violence around here?”

Asked if he has any solutions, Kejuan said, “Get rid of the guns. That’s all I can think of.”

He said Tyriek’s death has “changed my life. It changed who I hang around with. I encourage people to change their lives with music.”

Kejuan was wearing a shirt that read “N-Finity Muzik,” in which he is involved.

His father, Nijajuan Howard, founder of the youth-oriented entertainment company Tunnel Vision, said Tyriek’s death was “a reality check, a wakening” for his two sons. The other son, Michael Bethune, is 16.

“They said, ‘That was a friend, about the same age as me,’” Howard noted.

Lisa Sessions-Gray, pastor of Life Changing Outreach Ministries, said, “This event is important, especially with all the violence that’s going on. It’s important for us to be a presence for our children. We want to import positivity, to outshine the dark cloud that’s been hovering over us the last couple of weeks.”

On a stage set up in the park, a group of youths, the Heartbreakers, serenaded the crowd by singing “In the Still of the Night,” a perennial doo-wop hit originally recorded by the Five Satins in New Haven in the mid-1950s.

Chaz Carmon, president of the violence-opposing community group Ice the Beef, to which Tyriek belonged, asked for a moment of silence for him.

“It hit home for us,” he said. “That could have been any one of us.”

After he stepped off the stage, Carmon said, “I believe people are stepping up now and trying to do something. This has been going on too long.”