A Brooklyn woman is dead after she reportedly attempted to settle a dispute with a group of people without the help of the New York City police.
What are the details?
According to the New York Post, 33-year-old Shatavia Walls approached a group of people who were reportedly illegally setting off fireworks on July 4.
Walls, according to her mother, was "just following the advice of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams," who suggested citizens settle disputes through "community policing," and without the aid of trained law enforcement officials.
Walls approached the group, and asked them to stop firing off the explosives in the area in which children were playing.
This apparently didn't sit well with the group, as at least one person from the group reportedly began to chase Walls with a gun, and shot at her while she sought safety in her mother's apartment building.
Walls, who was not injured at the time, was able to recover the shell casing as well as the suspect's driver's license, which was dropped while fleeing.
Walls' mother, Helen Testagros, said her daughter immediately reported the incident to New York City police, but insisted that the department took no action at the time.
The department instead said that it did not learn of the incident until July 7 — after the same suspect reportedly shot Walls eight times after she confronted a second group of people who were illegally setting off fireworks three days after her first encounter with revelers.
What else?
Adams has repeatedly called for citizens to mediate nonviolent disputes without the help of police in order to cut down on the amount of police-on-citizen crimes.
"Stopping fireworks cannot turn into fireworks between the police and the community," Adams said in June remarks directed at increasing complaints of illegal fireworks detonations. "We want a good community response to dealing with a nuisance. ... This is a non-violent act, so those three numbers that we all dial — 911 — get over that."
"She watched the news," Testagros, Walls' mother, told the outlet of her daughter's decision to confront the group. "Yes, she heard it. It was probably in the back of her mind. It's not a good idea. You don't know who you are approaching. These kids are not respectful anymore. ... They're more ruthless."
She added that the suspect fired shots at her daughter until the gun's chamber was depleted.
"[Walls] was on the ground shot. And [the suspect] kept shooting until the gun went 'click, click, click,'" she recalled.
In a statement about the incident, Adams said, "My heart goes out to the family of Shatavia Wells on this horrific accident. Gun violence has hurt too many innocent people in our city from 1-year-old Davell Gardner to this dynamic young lady. Dangerous people are shooting innocent people for senseless reasons. I renew my call for cracking down on the scourge of illegal guns."
He added, "Our call is to continue building an ecosystem of public safety that includes community response and police. Whenever someone exhibits violence, we should call the police, but whenever we can communicate peacefully with our neighbors, we should do so."
Trump blasts uncivilized behavior
On Monday, President Donald Trump addressed Wells' murder in remarks to reporters at the Oval Office.
"I love New York," Trump said. "[But] look at what's going on over there. The woman who was shot because she said, 'Could you please not light off firecrackers?' And they turned around and shot her eight times and she died. That's not our civilization, that's not about us."
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