Crime & Safety

Spreading the Word About Dangers of Celebratory Gunfire: Henry Louis Adams

Redan minister uses Facebook to preach an end to holiday shooting that killed 4-year-old Marquel Peters.

There’s one thing Henry Louis Adams would like you to add to your to-do list for Monday’s Fourth of July celebrations: Tell your friends, family, neighbors and everyone you know about the dangers of shooting bullets into the air to celebrate.

“I want you to educate on a personal level” Adams says he tells people. “If you do that, we can change this generation.”

Adams, a minister and actor who lives near Redan High School, recalls New Year’s Eve 2009, when bullets were whizzing around his house. He grabbed his toddler daughter and huddled with her on the floor. His wife was at the late service at the family’s church, and bullets there, too, were bouncing off the exterior walls, he said.

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That same night in nearby Decatur, Marquel Peters, a 4-year-old boy, was hit and killed by a bullet that came through the ceiling of the church where he sat with his family. It’s believed the bullet was a stray fired by a New Year’s Eve reveler.

That tragedy, and the fear his own family suffers on many holidays, led Adams to start his personal campaign against celebratory gunfire.

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"Because I am a father, and I have a daughter who needs to grow up in DeKalb County," he said about his motivation.

Shooting guns in the air has been done for so long in Georgia, “it’s second-nature,” Adams said. “We know they’re going to shoot.” So at holidays, the routine is ‘‘y’all get on the floor, they’re going to shoot.”

Only a few hours after Marquel died, on Jan 1, 2010, Adams started a Facebook page, Citizens Against Celebratory Gunfire. He began contacting police public safety officials, lobbying for a campaign for more awareness, for better technology to locate the perpetrators, and more.

He is not alone. In June 2010, DeKalb County launched Marquel's Pledge to make people more aware that bullets fired into the air can kill. It asks citizens, community groups and businesses to do their part to eliminate the bad habit.

While Adams lauds that and public service announcements the county has made, he thinks more could and should be done.

Adam spends time almost daily, he says, researching the subject and what other places around the country are doing to prevent celebratory gunfire. Los Angeles County in California, for example, uses technology to spot where shots have been fired. Other places have PSAs on more prominent television slots, he said.

"If they can do it, we can do it," he said.

"I think we have to be willing, the public and county, to work together and do whatever it takes to develop a solid plan," Adams said. "Until we do that, it's going to continue to happen."

To join Adams' Facebook page, click here. To sign Marquel's Pledge, click here.


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