FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There's been two shootings in the last five days in Fort Myers. A teenager died in one of the shootings. Escalating violence among teenagers and the youth in Fort Myers is heightening the importance for City Manager Saeed Kazemi to hire a full time Police Chief.
"In a meeting yesterday with Saeed Kazemi we discussed having this wrapped up by mid-May. and I want to say we're somewhere in the neighborhood of 90-95 applicants." The violence is leading community activists like Israel Suarez to construct an outdoor athletic center targeting kids 8-20. He says putting up these basketball courts will give kids something to do, keep them off the street a little bit, but he's not sold on the idea that hiring a new Police Chief will change the course of crime in the city. "The new Chief of Police, he's going to come, he's going to bring his ideas but you need more than that, you need more than that."
While recognizing the importance of the Chief position, Suarez is looking into ways to improve relations among Police and children in the neighborhood. "I'm going to try to combine the Sheriffs Police and the City Police and be mentors and deal with the kids.
After a 19-year old got shot playing basketball Sunday and his brother lost his life just two days earlier, Mayor Henderson tells Fox 4 by phone the time is now to hire a permanent Chief. "We have got to get a handle on it and let these violent criminals know that they're not going to have it in our backyard and we're doing all that we can, we're going to do better and we're all over it."
