Community reacts to Columbia’s third homicide of 2016

Columbia Police are investigating a third homicide this year. Marquez D. Reed, 17, of Columbia, was killed in Wednesday night’s shooting near Allen Street and LaSalle Place. On Thursday, ABC 17 News spoke with community activists about what they are doing to try and curb the latest violence.

Glenn Cobbins, Sr. works for the city as a neighborhood outreach specialist. His job consists of going out the crime-ridden areas of Columbia and trying to find ways to end the violence.

“The place where it took place, there were so many kids, it could have been any child,” Cobbins said. “The neighbors need to say who did it, stand on it, and try to get the problem solved.”

Bishop Lorenzo Lawson runs the Youth Empowerment Zone in Columbia. He works on more of a policy level, meeting with city officials on ways to help homeless and drop outs get jobs to better their lives.

“We’ve got to show them there is and we’ve got to show them a viable way,” Lawson said.

Lawson and a coworker are attending a gang specialist training conference in Chicago in August.

“We want that training so that we can continue to deal with these young people,” Lawson said.

Although their strategies are different, Cobbins and Lawson both recognize while there is an issue with how police interact with communities, how people within communities interact with each other is also an issue.

“Its going to take police work to do that but its also going to take, the bigger part, is the community,” Cobbins said.