A resident of East Lake Courts, Tasha Rowe, said her children can’t play on her porch without being reminded of the threat of violence that underpins certain neighborhoods in Chattanooga.
“We hear bullets,” she told members of the Chattanooga City Council during their weekly meeting Tuesday. “We hear guns shooting, and it’s so normal that when they hear it, they know to run in the house. They know what it is.”
Accompanied by her children and wearing a shirt emblazoned with the face of her nephew – who she said was murdered in 2017 – Rowe was one of several mothers who spoke to city leaders Tuesday to call for action.
“When y’all go home, y’all sleep good,” Rowe said. “When I sleep, I sleep nervously.”
Fears about gun violence have boiled to the surface in recent weeks following two consecutive weekend shootings in Chattanooga, which have collectively left three people dead and 20 wounded.