TOLEDO, Ohio — Homicides are trending ahead in Toledo this year with almost double the number by this time last year. On Friday there were 17 homicides in 2021 compared to nine homicides during the same period last year.
People at Wildwood Park expressed confusion and numbness to the recent violence. They said they are surprised by how this continues to happen and so many of the situations are similar.
In 2020, there were 61 homicides, a record high in Toledo. 51 of those were from guns. Nearly half of the homocides involved victims 25 or younger.
Jennifer Cogdell lives in Toledo and works with elderly clients and said it's put them on edge.
"It's made me turn off the news to my elderly clients," said Cogdell. "It scares them. What neighborhoods they used to feel good about taking a walk, they no longer feel safe."
Tavis Glassman, who also lives in Toledo, stressed that more needs to be done about guns and mental health.
"This seems like an every week occurrence where someone is getting shot, and we need to do better," he said. "The story keeps repeating itself."
Cogdell says the community and police need to do more to help domestic violence victims as well. She believes in many circumstances, people do not believe the victim.
"In Toledo there's not enough safe places for women and children and programs," she said, "but ultimately I think it requires more steps that women can take to protect themselves; more than just a piece of paper and how long it takes them to get to court to even issue that paper."
Glassman noted the area's youth needs more good mentors and role models to help them grow up and avoid bad situations.
"People have to have something to do. So they needs jobs. They need to occupy their time," said Glassman. "They need something to hope for and they need somebody to be with and when any of those three are missing, we know that spells trouble."
Both Cogdell and Glassman believe police officers are not trained to handle a lot of these situations, particularly those surrounding mental health.
Many of them stem from problems in the home, they say, and it'll take a village to help make peoples' lives better and prevent this violence.
