Days after gunfire broke out at the Africville reunion in Halifax, Quentrel Provo is calling on police and politicians to do more about gun violence in the city.
“We’re over words now. We need doers. We need action,” the Stop the Violence founder said Tuesday.
Five bystanders were hospitalized, including one with life-threatening injuries, after two men exchanged gunfire at Saturday night’s event. No arrests have been made and police have not provided any suspect information as of Wednesday.
Provo says addressing gun violence as a whole should be “priority number one.”
“Who’s going to stand up in policing, who’s going to stand up in politics? We’ve got community leaders that are ready to work — I’m one of them, I’m here — and you know we need to do better,” he said Tuesday.
“I know our city is growing and we’re putting up buildings here and there, but we’re losing lives at a real high rate to gun violence, to violence in general…. And that’s the sad part, when we’re losing human lives and it’s not a main issue.”
Provo said police need to focus efforts on determining how guns are getting into Nova Scotia and into the hands of youth.
“If I was looking for a gun, I wouldn’t know where to start, you know? But kids are getting it.… We have to take that seriously.”
He also echoed numerous community voices in stressing that Saturday’s violence is not a reflection of Africville.
“Forty years families have been coming together on that sacred land.… I know some people tried to make it about Africville and it’s not a reflection of those families and those people, that community, that come together every year.”
In an email to Global News, Halifax Regional Police public information officer Const. John MacLeod said there was no additional information “in relation to the shooting investigation that I can share at this time.”
He also said the chief of police was unavailable for an interview this week but went on to say, “we understand the community’s concerns and want them to know that we are taking these incidents very seriously.”
“Further to that, we have specialized units that continue to act both reactively and proactively to pull illegal guns off the streets of our community. We do ask that if anyone has information on criminal activity especially guns that they contact police so that we can investigate.”
Of the five taken to hospital after shots rang out Saturday night, four were in their 20s and one was a teenager. Police have not provided additional information about the victims, but community members, including Provo, have said the teenager was a 16-year-old girl who is now in stable condition.
“I have a teenage son, it hits home. I couldn’t even imagine what her parents are going through, her family’s going through, her friends.”
The shooting is believed to have been “targeted,” police said Monday, but it’s unclear whether the intended target was injured.