Danville city council members share thoughts on city's latest homicides

DANVILLE (WSLS 10) - Mark your calendars for December 6.

That is the next city council meeting and that is when the plan that the city manager, the police chief and several others have been working on for months is expected to be outlined.

The plan is in response to the city's high number of homicides this year.

The most recent ones, coming last week when a 15-year-old was shot and killed on Thursday night and a 21-year-old was shot and killed on Friday night.

Mayor John Gilstrap said the city began taking a hard look at the issue earlier in the year when the homicide count was seven or eight.

Last week's homicides bring the count to 14.

Both Gilstrap and councilman Lee Vogler said they don't know exactly what the plan will entail, but said more community policing is a definite possibility.

And, while it may seem like the city is all walk and no talk, both Gilstrap and Vogler said a plan like this takes time to develop, but they are confident that once council begins to implement it, it will be successful.

"I think in between the different departments that we have, the chief, the city manager, churches, community leaders, everybody working together, we're all going to get on the same page and that's what it's going to take," said Vogler.

"Whatever we do, it will not be specific to a population. It will be implemented city wide," Mayor Gilstrap emphasized.

City council will have to approve the plan first, but once it's approved Gilstrap said implementation could begin immediately.