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Chattanooga Pastor Reacts to City's Crime

1,471 views · Published 18 March 2013 · 2:00 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: WTVC NewsChannel 9 · 2013 · News & Politics

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By Jerry Askin  Thursday brought with it three separate shootings in Chattanooga.  Those shootings are in addition to an officer who was shot earlier in the week.It has to stop, this is foolishness, says Pastor Kevin Adams from Olivet Baptist Church.Adams is from Chattanooga and says crime in the city has reached its peak.I just go in my house and I don't come out, says Angel Allen.I can't say when and where, but I do believe we are in our last days, says Joe Gibson.It's the reason Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd is relying on local pastors like Kevin Adams. Three of our local pastors helped us in working with the community in trying to get the suspect to turn himself in, says Chief Dodd.We interviewed the chief at a press conference on Wednesday.  That's when the chief announced the arrest of 39-year-old Celvin Houston.  Houston is accused of shooting Chattanooga police officer William McMillan.Then, on Thursday, there were three separate shootings. The first shooting happened near the Rite-Aid on Brainerd Road. 30 minutes later another man was shot in the Emma Wheeler Subdivision.  Then, a third shooting, happened five hours later on Tennessee Avenue in St Elmo.You can do something with your life instead of killing someone or spending the rest of your life behind bars, says Pastor Adams.Now, an 18-year-old man sits in jail accused of shooting and killing his rival gang member, a 16-year-old Howard High sophomore. Pastor Adams says it's a sad reality what our city has come to.I've been talking to some young kids who are explaining to me that they have no other option. They're being told if they grow up in a certain neighborhood, they have to belong to a gang, they're forced into a gang, says Adams. He says change begins at home.Some mother has to notice a change in her son, some father has to know a difference in his son, and sit him down and find out what they're going through, and try to reach them before we lose them, says Adams.Here's one idea he says worked in Chicago to get kids off the streets.We've got a citywide basketball league that we're getting ready to do now with gangs who are going to be playing against each other. We want them to settle it on the court, instead of settling it in the streets, says Adams.Pastor Adams says the church will host a job fair sometime in June targeting people with felonies. It's all apart of his efforts to give young people alternatives.

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