'So tired of the killings': Community leaders urge engagement after recent stretch of gun violence on Milwaukee's north side

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- After a recent stretch of high-profile shootings on Milwaukee's north side, community leaders do not want their neighbors to become desensitized to the violence.

They're pleading for more community engagement, and for people to help each other keep their neighborhoods safe.

Farina Brooks told us, "I almost cry every morning because it's like…every day…because it's like, 'Oh my god, I'm so tired of the shootings. I'm so tired of the killings.'"

Brooks is trying to fight back. After a spate of shootings near where she lives -some of them deadly- she's organizing a prayer walk.

She admits it may not stop every shooting, but it's a start. "It's all of us. We are a whole community. We are a village. It takes everybody."

Several of the northside shootings from the past two weeks happened near one specific location.

"Currently, right now, 45th and Hampton is probably one of our more problematic areas. Obviously, you see it on the news," MPD Capt. William Wilson told the crowd at a crime and safety meeting Monday night, June 16.

Milwaukee's 1^st district alderwoman, Andrea Pratt, told us, "The rate at which we've seen it, especially in my district at 46^th and Hampton, has been unprecedented."

Pratt is pushing people to get involved, saying violence is less likely to happen when people are engaged with their community and know their neighbors.

But no one at Monday's 90-minute meeting asked about any of the shootings.

We asked Pratt if people are numb to the violence. She said, "They are not numb to it. If I showed you my inbox, email. Everyone is calling me."

Pratt walked the area earlier Monday but said two residents declined to join her because they were scared. She said there simply is no easy explanation for the violence. "Is this a group of people that are targeting this area? And because they don't know that, they're scared to join."

But people like Farina Brooks are still trying. Brooks said, "The whole goal of this is to bring healing and unity. And it's not going to be a one-stop shop."

Because, as Pratt says, people deserve to be safe. "There are great things happening in this neighborhood, and I don't want the story for this neighborhood just to be these shootings."

The prayer peace walk organized by Farina Brooks will be held next Friday, June 27. It will start at 12:30 pm at 37^th and Center. Community organizations will be there, along with activists and religious leaders.