Shantea Pollock lives on Shelter Street. She says she could hear gunfire from her porch.
"I've never seen anything like that, you know? And just the way it happened, I mean, you hear gunshots, but that was like, sounded like 30 rounds. It just kept going."
Pollock says the night of the mass shooting on Genesee Street was traumatic for a lot of reasons -- but not because she's a stranger to gunfire.
A report by the African American Coalition of the FLHSA says homicide is the second leading cause of premature death among black men in Monroe County, second only to cancer.
The Coalition's Chairwoman Candice Lucas says this makes it a public health crisis.
"Whether they were shot or not they are now impacted by that and there is a trauma that goes along with that that is not always treated or treated sufficiently in our community."
Lucas says it's not as simple as diagnosing a disease and prescribing a pill, but she hopes raising awareness about the issue will bring the community together to find solutions.
