Hundreds gathered in Halifax Sunday afternoon with the common goal of putting an end to gun violence in the city.
“We need the whole community to stand up,” said event co-organizer Aric Salz. “We need everybody to be involved, to make a stand a while (the) community makes a movement."
Their message was to stop the violence and spread the love.
"Look at how it’s affecting the people around you, the members of your family,” said event co-organizer Quentrel Provo. “How it’s affecting your sister, brother, mother. It’s stressful and it hurts.”
There were three shooting deaths in the Halifax area over the span of seven days.
Former Halifax Rainmen star Tyler Richards was shot and killed inside a home on Cook Avenue on April 17. No arrests have been made in his death.
Two days later, officers responded to the 2000 block of Gottingen Street before 11 p.m. after receiving reports of shots fired in the area.
When they arrived, officers found two men inside a vehicle. Twenty-three-year-old Naricho Clayton was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have ruled his death a homicide.
Another man, 31-year-old Ricardo Whynder, suffered life-threatening injuries.
Early Saturday morning, 20-year-old Daverico Downey was killed in North Preston.
"This is a matter of us getting together as a community to be able to talk about this and be able to put pressure on those individuals,” said Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean Michel-Blais. “Those young males, black and white, who are playing around with guns.”
Demonstrators hope Sunday’s rally will bring change.
"People should stop being mean to everybody and hurting people. I just want peace,” said nine-year-old Makyli Joncas, who attended Sunday’s rally.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Marie Adsett.
