POUGHKEEPSIE – Members of the community, the common council, and SNUG gathered for a shooting response on Friday afternoon in Poughkeepsie. SNUG (guns spelled backward) holds responses to draw attention to gun violence.
Two shootings, one on April 3rd and a second one two days later, prompted Debra Long, SNUG program director and First Ward Common Council member to say the responses are held to reinforce the fact that SNUG is available to help the community work together to prevent gun violence.
SNUG staffer Ivan Brown is a lifelong member of the Poughkeepsie community and repeated his plea to the neighborhood on Friday. “Our focus is on the kids between the ages of 14 and 24,” he said. “Push those kids towards us and we will get them right,” Brown proclaimed. SNUG maintains that individuals between the ages of 14 and 24 are the most susceptible to gun violence and they work to provide that age group with alternatives to gun violence.
A shooting on Morgan Avenue on Wednesday, April 13, injured a man and Debra Long responded to the scene. Long reiterated her frustration about the shooting and announced a community shooting response to that incident is being held next week. “The community is asked to gather at the corner of Cottage Street and Morgan Avenue on April 19 at 3:30 p.m. to stand together and say enough is enough!” she said.
