Over the last few days, there have been multiple reports of gun violence in the Bronx. Hoping to make the violence stop, many went out into the community Friday, spreading the message on Gun Violence Awareness Day.

"We're doing prevention, intervention, we're doing it all"

Community members gathered to march for a purpose wearing bright orange shirts and chanting from the streets from La Central YMCA to St. Mary's Park in the Bronx.

The march was in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and to kick off Gun Violence Awareness month. 

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark hosted the march and a "Plant for Peace" to bed out flowers at St. Mary's Park.

"Orange is the color for gun violence awareness. And we're planting on behalf of beautifying the park, but at the same time honoring those who lost their lives to gun violence," Clark said. "So every year now – those plants come back every year, they're perennials ... Every year we'll get to honor, you know, gun violence awareness as well as those lives that were lost."

Clark expressed the march and planting for peace are just the beginning for the community to bloom in a new direction.

"We have a strategy, where we're doing prevention, intervention, we're doing it all. But it's also something that communities can take ownership. They can say this is a gun violence free zone," she said.

Participants in the events also listened to community members like Manuel Yambo, whose daughter was struck by a stray bullet and killed while leaving school three years ago.

"When you cross the street, it's not safe anymore. When you go outside, you don't know what can happen. To hear these things keep on happening and happening and happening, it's just devastating," he said.

"Take a look, it's more and more we are losing a generation of our young people. So it's important that we have young people here that understand their community," Clark said.

5 shootings in the Bronx in 48 hours

In the span of 48 hours, police responded to at least five shootings in the Bronx, leaving six people injured. Police say no arrests have been made in at least four of those five shootings.

Police presence was evident throughout parts of the borough Friday evening. Several officers stood outside at least two locations where gun violence sent three teens to the hospital less than nine hours apart.

On Thursday afternoon, surveillance video captured people running for cover as gunshots rang out on East 176th Street outside a grocery store. Police said two 17-year-olds were injured; one was shot in the neck and the other was shot in the right arm.

Other recent victims of gun violence in the borough include a 17-year-old boy shot in the hip, a 15-year-old boy shot in the thigh, a man in his 20s shot above his eye and a woman grazed by a bullet.

According to NYPD data, as of June 1, shooting victims and incidents are down in the Bronx by at least 18% compared to last year.

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• The Bronx