ST. LOUIS — It's an issue community leaders are calling a 'public health crisis.'
Some of the most serious and violent crimes in the past week were committed by teenagers. Over the weekend two more violent acts were added to that list.
Robberies, assaults, even carjackings turned deadly. These are just some of the crimes 15- and 16-year-olds are committing right now.
It's an issue that Reverend Derrick Perkins, with Centennial Christian Church Disciples of Christ, said needs to be addressed now before it's too late.
"We have to address these things while they are young — so that they don't grow into individuals who become adults — without the support that they need," he said.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Perkins said, violence and crime among youth is not anything new.
"It just breaks my heart. It seems like that we should be able to do something more to protect young people and to protect them from all the risk factors that are available to them," he said.
Perkins said he believes those added risk factors of today's world has made the problem only get worse.
"We really as a community should be raising the alarm, sounding the alarm, [because] it's out of control," he said.
At least six violent crimes were committed by teenagers ranging from 13 years old to 17 years old from Friday, Jan. 20 to Sunday, Jan. 29.
Most recently, police are still looking for two teenagers involved in a carjacking in the Carondelet Baptist Church parking lot on Virginia Avenue on Friday, Jan. 27, according to a St. Louis incident summary report.
Unfortunately, Perkins said, these crimes committed by teenagers do not surprise him that much anymore.
"It's shocking, but it's starting to become a normal thing unfortunately because many of our young people are desperate. Many of them don’t have the resources, they don’t always feel loved. They don’t have anyone who will take them as they are and provide them with alternatives," he said.
According to Perkins, poverty, toxic stress, what happens in the home, gun laws and fear are all contributing factors to why teens end up on the wrong side of violence.
"There’s a lot of fear that young people are up against as they travel from home to school to wherever they’re going and that is the fear of if they’re going to be protected from some of the elements that’s going on in the community. What happens is sometimes they join those elements because they don’t feel protected and safe," he said.
That's why Perkins is working daily at his church in North St. Louis to reach the youth.
"We’re trying to provide programming where young people can speak, be heard, and we can really understand what they’re up against so that we can be an ally," he said.
Perkins said his house of faith can't fix this 'public health crisis' alone.
"I think it’s time for some collaboration with local companies, political leaders, local businesses in the area. We need to get some neighborhood, relationship building again. In order to address this, we need every hand on deck," he said.
Some of these teenagers are committing these crimes, not because they want to, but because they're desperate and have no other place to turn, according to Perkins.
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