Columbus City Hall glows orange to honor victims of gun violence

Yahoo

07-06-2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Columbus City Hall honors and remembers victims of gun violence by lighting itself orange.
Friday night, dozens gathered at Columbus City Hall to raise awareness of gun violence. This event not only honored and remembered those who died by gun violence, but it was also about the work being done to prevent it.
City hall was glowing orange because it's the color of gun violence awareness. Events are being held not just in Columbus, but nationwide to bring awareness to the gun violence that's happening across the country.
'It's imperative to realize that every life lost is a story that's been cut too soon. It is something that is impacting families and generations from that unfortunate loss. So we don't do it as a performative gesture just to show numbers. But what we do is to honor the people who have been lost,' said Office of Violence Prevention Director Rena Shak.
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Year to date, the city has the lowest number of homicides in more than a decade. However, there were thirteen homicides in the month of May. It's a trend that doesn't surprise Director Shak.
'Historically, May has been our highest month with homicides for the last few years, as far as I can count,' she said. 'We hope that our efforts, as well as the efforts of all of our partners, both government and nonprofit, everything that we're doing this summer, helps to keep those numbers lower than they were in May.'
Columbus police say there have been thirty-two homicides this year, 87% of those were committed with a gun.
'I feel like gun violence took a lot of people that I really care about away from me at such an early age, throughout the process of life, and even in my elder years. So I just feel like it really is a public crisis. But more importantly, it's a cultural issue that we've got to address and try to change the pattern,' said Nello Jennings, a Columbus Violence Reduction Interventionist.
Jennings says keeping homicide numbers down requires community effort and collaboration.
'We all got to be in this thing together for us to really have an impact. I feel like the effects of gun violence is indiscriminate and it can affect any family,' he said.
Director Shak says her office is investing millions of dollars into violence reduction.
'What we know is a large majority of all of our homicides that are happening year after year are starting in a conflict,' said Director Shak. 'So if we can get to that source of individuals in our community not truly knowing how to best resolve that conflict, how can we prevent those from happening on the back end.'
Director Shak wants to emphasize the fact that they can't do this work alone. It takes an entire community coming together to really make a difference.
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