BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are now numerous efforts underway to stop the alarming rate of shootings and killings in the City of Buffalo.
According to federal officials, shootings are up more than 100 percent, and Buffalo is on pace for more than 90 murders and nearly 400 shooting victims in the city. Over the July 4 holiday weekend, federal officials say 17 people were shot, including that 3-year-old boy in the city's Ferry-Grider apartments.
From federal agencies to local police, plans are constantly being released on how to end the violence, and now, we're learning of a new strategy.
The federal government is writing a check for $5 million that will go to local anti-violence groups. This is on top of more than $200,000 from the state.
That's where the $5 million is coming from.
The money will be used to help families impact by violence, youth mentoring and to hire more staff.
For a long time anti-violence groups have said they're underfunded, but that is changing.
"This is not just money being thrown at the problem, because that does not solve anything. It has to be smart money. This is a very comprehensive effort," Pastor James Giles of Buffalo Peacemakers said. "We have brainstormed, we have looked at what everybody is doing on the ground and how we can make a collective impact."
Giles says a lot of the money will focus on training.
"Ideally, we want to increase the number of individuals that are available that are reducing that conflict, but we want to make sure they're trained, so a lot of dollars are going to training," Giles said.
Federal agencies such as the FBI and the DEA have launched a 60-day surge to get illegal guns off the streets and use more agents to try to intervene in online disputes that could lead to gun violence.
Federal officials and local law enforcement have assembled a task force called the Federal Violence Prevention and Elimination Response (VIPER) Task Force, to address gun violence.
"If we can use the resources and the intelligence and our ability to mind the social media that we do to try to identify those conflicts and interrupt them before they result in that shooting then we're doing a good job," James Kennedy, Jr. the U.S. Attorney for Western New York said at a press conference last week.
"We don't want to turn these communities of violence into minimum security prisons we're going to fish with a spear and not with a net."