Black men step up after Halifax homicides to quell conflicts before they turn violent
'It's getting out of hand and we're just here to try to stop the violence,' say members of Man Up
Recent killings in Halifax have led a group of black men to come forward to try to mediate disputes before another trigger is pulled and another life taken.
Marcus James and Lonnie Murphy are members of Man Up, a group for black men started shortly after three murders in the spring to address violence and other issues that impact the community. The group's first meeting brought more than 80 men together.
"It's getting out of hand and we're just here to try to stop the violence, educate our youth, give them more opportunity in the community and give them hope, basically," Murphy said.
"We would like to come to a point that some of these children striking back out with violence, we would like to give them some type of recourse that they can come to us and say, 'You know what Lonnie, Marcus and anyone else in our community, I have a problem with such and such a guy and can you guys try to mediate this between us?'"
'You're burying your family'
Of Halifax's 12 homicide victims in 2016, seven were black men — six of whom were in their 20s.
"You're burying your family, you're burying your friends, burying people that you don't even know," Murphy said. "It's devastating. It's taking a toll on people's families."
The latest shooting happened Monday night. Tyler Keizer, 22, was shot in a parked SUV in north-end Halifax. He was left in critical condition after gunshots rang out in the area of Gottingen and Falkland streets shortly before 11 p.m.
He died of his injuries in hospital.
Murphy himself left the streets, said goodbye to crime and furthered his education. But he hasn't forgotten the people he left behind.
"Me personally, I don't have no fear of Halifax but there is a lot of friends of mine that are in the game and stuff like that and I fear for their safety," he said.
Just one group of many
The day before they were interviewed, James and Murphy both attended the funeral of one of last week's homicide victims. Their grief is still raw.
"If there's a shooting here in (the) north end, it's not just north-end Halifax. It's all of the black communities across the province that it impacts," said James, a founder of Man Up.
"This is unusual for the black community. This isn't something that's been going on for years and years. This is new to us."
No one organization will be able to fix the situation, James said.
The African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, an umbrella group for 19 churches, put out a call Wednesday for mental health workers to provide grief counselling and support for families affected by the gun violence.
As well, the group wants all levels of government, the IWK Health Centre and the Nova Scotia Health Authority to establish a public health strategy to address the needs of African Nova Scotians.
'Where does that healing begin?'
James said violence will continue until the community sits down and talks about poverty, unemployment, education and drug abuse. A meeting of the black community will be held Monday at Halifax North Memorial Public Library.
"When you take another life, we're losing two lives — one that goes to jail and the other that is being buried," James said.
"And it takes our community such a long time to heal from that and where does that healing begin?"
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