Fayetteville Today

Cumberland County traditionally has a higher homicide rate than the state of North Carolina does, and this year is looking to continue that trend.

Coming off of 2021, a year when the city of Fayetteville, which is part of Cumberland County, posted a record 48 slayings, a group in the city is trying to find ways to curb the violence.

"I never thought that my 22-year-old daughter would have been murdered,” Thretha Chance, whose daughter Maggie was a homicide victim, told WTVD. 

It appears that the county and city are on their way to surpass last year's record numbers.

"My daughter was the 37th homicide in Cumberland County last year (in October),” Chance said. “This year we have already passed 37."

Chance isn’t the only parent who has lost a child to a killer. Citizens who have been affected by gun violence in some way created Heal the Ville.

”This beautiful woman lost her daughter to gun violence, this young man lost his brother due to gun violence and my cousin her father was lost due to gun violence,” Demetria Murphy ticked off during a group meeting Saturday.

"For a long time, I was a part of the problem growing up here in the housing projects here in Fayetteville, N.C.,” Terrell Gibbs who lost his brother to gun violence said, “so I have a lot of inspiration to give."

Community outreach and education are the two ways the group is trying to stop gun violence before it happens. They work with those who are most at risk and with people who want to stop the violence in their own communities.

It’s not something that law enforcement officers can do alone; it takes a community effort, one attendee said.

"It's a lose-lose situation and if we look at it, we have to be proactive and speaking out and actually being an active part of the change,” Tiffany Campbell said.