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Commander Williams Says Peace Is An Ongoing Conversation
posted (May 10, 2017)

Bonilla and Lalin were killed just four days apart, and while police say neither murder is gang related, Williams made it a point to defend the peace being held by the city gangs. He told us about the work he and his mediation partners have been doing with the gang members on the Southside, and added that they plan to include other gangs, like the ones in the Jane Usher area, to bring stability back to the area...

ACP Chester Williams - Commander, Southside Police
"I would just like to add that myself, Mr. Finnegan, Brother Nuri and Jawi have been busy working with a group of young men. As I said before you all would know that the area that was problematic to us was the George Street, PIV, Conch shell Bay, Banak Street and extension area. Those were the areas that were giving us a lot of problems and what we had done is to bring all those groups together and we created a pact since the beginning of April and since we created that pact we have not seen any gang violence coming from those persons who are involved in the pact. So to suggest that the pact is falling apart is a total lie. The pact is holding up but as I have said before that they were other areas that we needed to infiltrate and Jane Usher was one of those such areas and that was the reason why we went to Jane Usher to have the family day to start off the intervention in the area and then this week would be spending time with those persons from Jane Usher to bring them into the pact. So what we'll be doing this evening we have lined up an intervention session with the young men from Jane Usher and we'll see how we can incorporate them in what we are doing and hopefully with that, we'll see how we can restore some semblance of peace in the Jane Usher Boulevard area."

Since the gangs’ March for Peace on April 12th, there have been three murders in the city - and police stress that none of them are confirmed to be gang related.

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