Mayor Dennis Williams visited three Wilmington neighborhoods Tuesday that experienced shootings last weekend. A spokesman for the Mayor’s office says the murders are believed to be connected, and that the Williams administration wanted to get the word out that police are looking for information.
During his walk through the hotspots, Mayor Williams encountered mixed reactions from the public. One man - near 7th and West Streets- wanted to take a selfie with him. Other people stopped their cars to shake his hand.
But outside the memorial for Raekwon Mangrum at 2nd and Townsend Street, it was a different story. While teens comforted each other over the recent death, Dorothy Mangrum, Raekwon’s grandmother, confronted the Mayor with a litany of complaints.
"I don’t like you," she said. "I don’t like you as a person. Because you didn’t stand by nothing that you said."
While the Mayor listened to Mangrum’s angry comments, two little girls played and rode their bikes, seemingly unaware. But one wore a jean jacket decorated with pictures of a young man.
It was a man named Coby, a cousin who also died from gun violence.
Williams moved on to visit other neighbors, and said that Raekwon’s grandma was simply grieving.
"You just let it go," he said. "But when some people see the microphone and the cameras, they grandstand. But I’m not going to debate that today. I decided to move on because we were having a sideshow. And I’m not here for that."
In the Southbridge neighborhood, where another shooting had taken place, the Mayor walked into a conversation with two mothers lamenting the impact violence has on their kids.
"Kids can’t even come outside. My son is obese because he’s scared to come outside," said one mom.
Soon a group of neighborhood children formed. They asked Mayor Williams if he was the President.
When asked about the most recent murder in the neighborhood, one child responded by saying he missed his cousin, who had been killed by gun violence. Another said he missed his uncle. And another his brother. By the end, every child in the circle had named a close relative who had passed away.
Mayor Williams says the city is making progress - pointing to Operation Disrupt, which he claims is pushing the crime rate down.
"We are driving it down. The gloves are off. And all the naysayers and people who want to jump up and down and beat on their chests, they can come join me with solutions, and stop running their mouths," he said.
