PINE HILLS, Fla. — Pine Hills residents and community leaders are demanding answers after five people were shot two years ago, leaving three dead.
Three people, a woman, a child, and a journalist, were killed.
The suspect, Keith Moses, is in jail awaiting trial.
On Wednesday at the Kingdom Church, people questioned the response by the sheriff's office.
“We have been pushed to this, and we're not going to stop until we see a great manifestation in Pine Hills. This is not Crime Hills. This is Pine Hills,” Angel Grantley said.
Grantley is T'yonna Major's aunt. The 9-year-old was among three people shot and killed in February, two years ago in Pine Hills.
“She didn't understand why some people didn’t have or why somebody's hungry. She was the life. Wherever she went, she was the life,” T'yonna's father, Tokiyo Major, said.
T'yonna's mother, 38-year-old Natacha Augustin, and Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons were also shot and killed
This town hall meeting was called to develop a plan for future public safety measures.
“This is all of us. The sheriff's office, everybody should have been standing in the gap with us and seeing what we can do to fix this problem,” Grantley said.
“Where is he? Why isn't he here? Why isn't there at least a sheriff’s deputy here listening to what we just heard?” Moliere Dimanche asked.
Community leaders and the attorney for the victims' families headed a panel to find answers.
Mark Nejame claims in a lawsuit that nine-year-old T'yonna Major was killed because deputies were too slow to respond to the scene.“What's important is that we not develop a culture of complacency. While this is Pine Hills, this is what happens, and so on, we'll do the minimum that needs to be done instead of what needs to be done,” Nejame said.
He says Pine Hills Elementary had not been locked down since 2014.
“In 11 years, including this tragic day, Pine Hills Elementary was not on lockdown,” Nejame added.
T’yonna's aunt says there should have been several schools and the neighborhood on lockdown.
One suggestion that got the most conversation was that Pine Hills may need to be its own municipality and have its own security.
"I'm not pro or against you all annexing or creating your own municipality or incorporating Pine Hills, but Pine Hills has enough homeowners to sustain itself,” former Orlando Commissioner Regina Hill said.
Orange County Commissioner Mike Scott said it's not a simple process.
“I'm in the trenches as much as I can be, but I am one commissioner. It takes four votes to move anything in the county,” Scott explained.
T'yonna Major's uncle had hoped more people would have shown up but asked.
“Come and help us. We care about this community. We love this community. We're going to change the narrative of this community,” he said.
Another suggestion is to create a citizens’ board. The next step is to develop an action plan.
It's one that the event organizer says she will share with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office told WESH 2 that because of ongoing litigation involving a member of the panel, it was "inappropriate to engage in a public discussion on this topic."
The spokesperson added that crime in Pine Hills is down 55% since 2012, homicides are down 50%, robberies are down 67% and residential burglaries are down 83%.
