‘I want to be safe”: Carver Shores residents call for safety improvements after recent shootings

ORLANDO, Fla. — A 15-year-old boy is behind bars for a triple-shooting that left a man and a six-year-old girl dead.

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Residents living near the shooting scene say they’re frustrated with the violence and are calling for safety improvements to be added to their community.

“I want my grandchildren to be safe to sit on the porch,” Carver Shores resident Carolyn Brown said. “I want to be safe too because a bullet has nobody’s name on it.”

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Brown and fellow neighbor Shirley Heath say they’ve seen bullets take the lives of five people in the last four months, including that six-year-old girl who investigators say wasn’t the intended target of the shooting.

The shootings happened less than half a mile away from each other.

Last week, the six-year-old child and her mother were hit by stray bullets. On Easter Sunday, three more people were killed, including another innocent bystander, in a shooting near Poppy Park.

“We’re getting cameras,” Orlando District 6 Commissioner Bakari Burns said.

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Burns, whose district includes the Carver Shores area, has been in contact with the residents about some of the changes they want to see. He says after multiple fatal shootings, they’ve made their needs clear.

“When you have an unfortunate situation like that, it just raises the eyebrows into concern about the safety,” Burns said.

Poppy Park sat empty and quiet on Labor Day. Neighbors like Carolyn Brown say they hope the new cameras will bring laughter and kids back outside safely.

“My dream is to have cameras everywhere,” Brown said. “When people come mess it up for us, we could catch them on camera and see who was the bad guy and see who’s the target.”

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Right now, Commissioner Burns says they’re planning to install three cameras in the park that will be monitored by the Orlando Police Department.

If the logistics work out, the cameras should be installed by October.

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