TOLEDO, Ohio — City leaders have reacted to Desire Hughes' death, saying there needs to be a solution, with Toledo City Councilwoman Cerssandra McPherson voicing the idea of a potential city curfew.
Two Toledo residents WTOL 11 spoke to said they don't want to live here anymore. They say that's because the city is becoming too dangerous and they feel like there isn't just one solution to end all this gun violence.
When asked how they felt about a potential city-wide curfew going into effect, they said they fear instead of controlling the violence, it would only make it worse.
They say gun violence in the city seems to be increasing and they're scared for a future in Toledo.
“You know, America is a very 'we have our rights' and I think that's going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. and most of the people that are out committing these crimes aren't following the law anyway," Moseley said. "I don't think it's going to help. It's a good idea, but I don't think it's going to do anything. It anything, it'll anger people and make everything worse."
"I don't know what a curfew would do," Chad White said. "I don't know how many people would follow a curfew anyways. It seems like that stuff kind of gets blown away. People don't really take it very seriously. And if they're willing to kill someone, I don't know how much they're willing to stay indoors when the government tells them to. So, who knows really if that would really do anything."
Toledoans are now becoming numb to shootings.
"Unfortunately, I'm getting a little used to it at this point," White said. "You get an alert [on your phone], then it's like, 'oh, there's another one.'"
Moseley said especially now that the state has passed the gun law - no longer requiring Ohioans to be trained in gun safety - we don't need to give people anymore excuses to be violent.
"Training to drive a car, a lot of the times you have to go through a certain training to own dogs in certain cities; it's just obnoxious that we would go that far back in time," he said.
The president of the West Toledo Neighborhood Association, Tina Scott, said residents can call or text Crime Stoppers at 419-255-1111 or call the police, but there needs to be something specifically for incidents like this.
"But perhaps the city could set up a hotline to where the parties calling know they would be anonymous and kept safe from retaliation."
She said the more violence that happens, the more it's driving people out of town.
Scott explained there are people out there who know information about these crimes, they're just scared they would be next.
She said it's up to the city to protect them.