Group holds unity walk in South Dallas to reclaim the area as a place of peace

DALLAS - While the pandemic has commanded much of our attention, there are many reasons to be concerned about the violence this year on Dallas streets.

This year, the city has already seen its highest number of homicides in a decade.

Those who live the neighborhoods dealing with the worst violence marched, and in their words, were "invading" to try to enact change.

On the same South Dallas streets that are too often plagued by violence, a group marched Saturday to reclaim them as a place of peace.

“Dallas is on fire right now, you understand, and so this is the team. This is one of the teams right here, what you see right there behind us,” said one participant, who goes by Big Milk.

The organization, Urban Specialists, gas a OGU movement.

It stands for Original Gangsters United, and includes former gang members.

It’s been deploying what it calls "violence interrupters" to intervene on the streets.

“We got all these people in these streets, every day in these streets, trying to make a difference. So yeah, we're moving in optimism and we're also moving in love,” Big Milk added.

Earlier this month, Dallas surpassed a grim milestone of 200 homicides. A number that's continued to climb since.

Some of the most recent victims of gun violence were a 4-year-old and her grandfather.

They were caught in a shower of gunfire at an Oak Cliff apartment complex Monday night.

Both survived.

And that 4-year-old joined those calling for change Saturday.

Her mother, Jazsmin Sanders, described the fear as she waited for an ambulance.

Her daughter ended up losing four pints of blood.

“By that time, she was almost lifeless,” Sanders recalled. “By the grace of God, he had his arms around her, she was covered in the blood of Jesus and they flew her to Children's in like 10 minutes.”

As of Saturday, no one has been arrested in the shooting.

“I just want justice,” Sanders said. “I know somebody knows something. Please come forward, and I just want to know who did this, she's too young to understand to even go through this.”

Until there's justice and until there's an end to the senseless violence, these members of the community will continue to try to intervene, and hopefully send a message to those whose feuds are destroying lives.

“The silence, it's distasteful and it’s disgusting,” Big Milk said. “These codes we're trying to hang on to, man, it ain’t doing nothing but going against us in the end.”