DETROIT – Community members and city leaders came together Friday to remember 6-year-old Rylee Love and call for an end to the recent spike in gun violence in Detroit involving children and teens.
“We’re locking arms with these families and we’re telling the community that we’re in it with you,” said Maurice Hardwick, founder of the non-profit Live in Peace. “There’s no way a baby is getting shot in this city again and we’re not here with you.”
Police say multiple vehicles were part of a shootout in the area of Anglin Street Sunday night when Rylee was hit and killed by a stray bullet in his home.
Live in Peace organized the rally in support of the family, alongside city leaders and other Community Violence Intervention organizations. Community members held a procession and balloon release in Rylee’s memory at Joseph Campau Avenue Church.
“This man is broken,” Hardwick said about Rylee’s father, Terrance Neal. “He worked for a living. Taking care of his kids. He went to go get his son McDonald’s and came back to a tragedy.”
Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison called for more state funding for the city’s “Shot Stoppers” CVI groups, saying he’d like to expand the program beyond the six zones it currently serves. He referenced a bill passed by the Michigan House this legislative session that has since stalled, which would give Detroit additional public safety funding to support CVI.
It comes as police ask for the public’s help to identify the suspects responsible for a drive-by shooting that injured a 7-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy Thursday while they were asleep in a home on Detroit’s east side.
“In my 30 years I have not seen this type of collectivity of all different sides come together all at once,” Bettison said. “I really believe and feel that people truly are fed up. I believe and I know I’m not going to let this little boy’s life go in vain.”
A GoFundMe has been started to support the family and help pay for funeral expenses.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detroit Police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest.
“I make the same commitment and pledge to the individuals who recklessly shoot in the city of Detroit, who have taken little Rylee Love’s life,” Bettison said. “We cannot stop and we will bring them to justice as well.”