Fresno's police chief says he's sick of gangs and sick of their violence
More than a hundred officers in Fresno's Memorial Auditorium listened as Chief Jerry Dyer told them about the 29 shootings in over three weeks.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A 16-year-old girl is the latest victim of gang violence. The shooting sent Fresno police on a three week mission to end the violence.
The teen is in critical condition Community Regional Medical Center. Police say she was shot in the cross fire and was not the intended victim. The Chief says he's sick of gangs and sick of their violence.
More than a hundred officers in Fresno's Memorial Auditorium listened as Chief Jerry Dyer told them about the 29 shootings in over three weeks, about the 16-year-old girl who was shot because gang members were looking for one of her relatives, and about the shooting at Fink White Park.
Days later, police tape is still on the playground where kids play. Chief Jerry Dyer said, "That child could be any one of ours. Could be my grandchildren, could be your children. These shootings aren't restricted to some of these neighborhoods."
The Chief says there's been a huge increase in violence in the past sevem weeks. It's drugs, prostitution, old feuds between gangs. Dyer says guns are in the hands of the wrong people. He told his officers, "You do an incredible job of removing guns from our street, continue to do that, but step up your game."
The three week mission to stop the violence started on Wednesday morning. Officers seized an AK-47 and say it was intended for a drive by shooting. Chief Dyer says his message to gang members? It's just the beginning of their efforts. "We're going to remove them from the streets we're going to take their firearms and put them in jail and put them in prison and we are going to stop the violence in our neighborhoods."
He says so far this year they've removed 550 guns off the streets, and he says when they reconvene in three weeks he's hoping for different statistics. "I think it's important for the community to understand what we're facing and it's important to understand what we're doing and the media is our voice to our community and to the gang members."
The chief says he'll be sparing no resources to launch this operation. They're using grant money to pay for overtime and he says we can expect to see a lot of arrests in the next few weeks.
