Many residents of Brockville, Ont., are staying indoors and avoiding any activity when the sun goes down after multiple incidents were related to youth gang activity.
“My children are scared to the leave the house, and when it becomes dark, I’m scared to take out the garbage,” said a resident who chose to be anonymous.
Brockville police say the “gang” or group consists of children who attend secondary schools in the Brockville area.
The anonymous resident told Global News that the kids range in age from 13 to 15 years old but with some even younger. They went on to explain that the gang has increased in size and that they are heavily armed when roaming the community.
“They make threats with guns, they explicitly show themselves using drugs, they dominate areas of our community and it’s a crisis,” said the anonymous resident.
The group of teenagers is being identified as the “Burr Gang” and Brockville police say that over the years, there have been multiple groups of children who call themselves an array of names, and it is the police’s goal to get inside the schools and work with the youth.
The police are asking the public to call 911 if you witness any sort of crime, and for one local resident, she has taken it upon herself to pitch in.
Nathalie Lavergne has founded the Brockville Neighborhood Watch group to lessen the number of crimes taking place in the downtown core. She ensured that that Brockville’s crime issue cannot be solved overnight but said doing something is better than nothing.
The police will continue to communicate with school principles to find a solution to this “gang” activity, said Brockville Police Service Staff Sgt. Andrew Harvie.