CINCINNATI — A 14-year-old boy is dead after a shooting in Avondale Monday morning, according to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office.
Police said officers responded to a ShotSpotter report in the 800 block of Hutchins Avenue at around 1 a.m. Monday when they located a boy who had been shot. He was taken to the hospital, but later pronounced dead.
The coroner later identified the boy as Tyquan Jones-Alexander.
Police said a second person showed up at the hospital after the shooting, but it is not clear whether that is related at this time.
WCPO 9 spoke with Bishop Ennis Tait who worked with Jones-Alexander briefly when he was younger as part of his community outreach, which works to tackle the root causes of gun violence and let children know there are other options.
“It’s a perfect example of when you touch a young person’s life and in a short period of time, it can turn around in any different way,” said Tait.
Tait said there is an epidemic of youth violence in Cincinnati.
“It is literally a public health issue, and the spirit of violence is contagious,” said Tait. “If we treated this gun violence as seriously as we did COVID, it would be a different outcome in our city.”
Tait said many of these kids are in survival mode and acting based on what they know. He says to work towards improvement on the gun violence issue, communities need to address the root causes, such as poverty and homelessness. But they need to do the work together.
