HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Eleven days after 25-year-old Jhonny Torres was shot dead along Nectarine Street — and nine days after the man police say killed Torres, 29-year-old Santiago Gutierrez, died of bullet wounds during a shootout with police — Harrisburg’s Group Violence Intervention (GVI) went back to scene of the homicide.
It’s called a “one-stop” visit.
“A ‘one-stop’ is an opportunity for us to go into communities impacted by shootings and loss of life,” said Angelo Craig, Harrisburg’s GVI project manager. The goal: to intervene early, before the next shooting.
The visit Thursday was the second “one-stop” event in the city, following the first one in October — and following a model that has worked in other cities around America, including York, which has had five homicides so far in 2024 (down from 22 as recently as 2022), compared to Harrisburg’s 23.
Prayer features prominently in the visits, but local religious leaders, including Pastor Joseph Green of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, believe a combined effort is necessary.
“It’s not just the church, or the police, or the city—it’s all of us coming together with unity,” Green said. “That’s what will help turn things around.”
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