TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City Council member Theresa Morris is tired of violence in her district, and she knows the community is too. That's why on Thursday evening, she held a community meeting to talk about solutions to crime with residents of the Regina Coeli neighborhood of west Toledo.
While it's traditionally a quiet part of town, neighbors say depending on the street you could be living in total peace and quiet, or you could be used to hearing gunshots.
Residents on Sandralee Drive said they've had no issues. But just two streets south on Waybridge Road, back in April, residents experienced two drive-by shootings in two weeks.
Both shootings happened in the 800 block of Waybridge Road, only two houses down from each other.
A neighbor who declined to be interviewed on camera showed WTOL 11 the bullet holes in his neighbor's home. He said the gunfire woke him up in the middle of the night. As he and other neighbors left their homes and tried to figure out where the shots came from, the realization that it was a drive-by shooting came as a massive shock after decades with barely any shooting incidents.
Nobody was hurt in the home, but the neighbor was worried about the damage it could have caused. He was even more concerned when, according to him, it took Toledo police 45 minutes to get to the scene.
Two weeks later, another home was sprayed with bullets in the middle of the night. The neighbor said it was a fear-inducing wake-up call to the possibility that someone could have been killed.
"It scares the hell out of you. It just really scares the hell out of you," he said. "These people who are doing this, have no concern for human life."
City leaders aren't turning a blind eye to these concerns. Morris and Toledo police held a meeting at Precious Blood Church at 6 p.m. Thursday, featuring members of TPD's gang task force, fellow council member George Sarantou and around 40 west Toledo residents.
The evening was an opportunity for people in the area to talk about what they feel needs to change, express concerns, present solutions and talk directly to the people that can make a difference.
The anonymous neighbor WTOL 11 spoke with said it's reassuring to see a community come together with a shared goal in mind, but he's not sure what the solution to the violence is.
"I don't know if it going to take more police force, more communication with neighbors or just back and forth with each other to get to the bottom of this," he said.
Morris said she believes these open dialogues are the start of finding real solutions.
"I'm one of those people who doesn't just meet to meet," Morris said. "I want to talk about some real solutions. I don't want griping. I want real solutions because I can't do it on my own. It's going to take all of us."