TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Travis County District Attorney José Garza released a four-point strategy on Tuesday to reduce gun violence in the Austin area.
There have been 82 homicides reported in Travis County in 2021. County and City leaders called gun violence a pandemic. Garza said there is a responsibility to do everything in their power to stop the rising tide of violence. He hopes his four-point plan will do just that.
"Our homicide rate, compared to most major cities in the country is still relatively low, and the fact is most types of crime in the community have decreased over the last year," said Garza. "That being said, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to quell the rising number of homicides in our community and to prevent violence before it happens."
Here is a look at the four points in Garza's strategy:
- Use both traditional and innovative prosecution strategies for sentencing people charged with gun crimes.
- Work with community members to prevent gun violence by creating, supporting and implementing intervention and prevention programs.
- Taking guns out of the hands of those at high risk for committing an act of gun violence in an intimate partner relationship.
- Supporting programming to help survivors and families of the victims of gun violence.
"If you pick up a gun, pull the trigger and take someone's life in this community, you will be arrested and you will be held accountable," Garza said. "But if we are serious about ending violence in our community, we have to do more than punish people after they have caused harm. We have to do all we can to prevent violence before it happens."
Other parts of the strategy include the establishment of a trauma recovery center to help victims heal.
"It's a very long healing process," said Jill Henderson, mother of Bakari Henderson, who died in Greece in 2017.
She said her stepson died because of gun violence in 2007.
"It's one that's a cycle that continues to spiral around," she said. "It's not one that's healed within six months or a year. It's a lifetime of healing that victims experience."
The report can be found on the district attorney’s website here.
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