LANSING, Mich — Call it a top priority for the gun violence prevention group, Advance peace.
“So we got a lot of little beefs going on,” Aaron Blankenburg with Advance Peace. “For example, if something happens to my crew and we think y'all did it, we come back and try and get back at y’all, that's what we mean by retaliatory.”
Leaders said most of the retaliation stems from non fatal shootings. Lansing Police said so far this year, the city has seen 10 of them. The most recent one, early Monday morning, when a 12 year old boy was shot and treated for non life threatening injuries. We’re told Advance Peace was on the scene within hours.
“It happened around 4 we got a call around 6 and went to the scene,” Deandre McFadden.
Once on the scene, the group told us they worked their sources to try and make contact with all parties involved.
“We try and figure out where it came from both sides, who may be mad about it, family member that may be mad, friends that may be mad, you name it,” Blankenburg said.
This could sometimes take days, but the end goal is simple.
“We try to just talk them down, keep them on the cool side of things, be there for them, talk sense into them, just be somebody that could be a bride between them calming down and not doing something silly” Blankenburg said.
