Monday night, 13-year-old Nyaira Givens was stabbed to death by another girl her same age in Winton Hills.
While killings are relatively rare, assaults against juveniles and between juveniles are reported to police nearly every day.
According to an Enquirer analysis Cincinnati Police data, 477 assaults and killings against juveniles were reported in the past 12 months. Of those, 50 resulted in the arrest of another juvenile.
Guns were involved in 128, knives in six, but most were physical attacks with no weapons.
Arrests were made in about a third of the cases. In one of 10 cases, the victim refused to cooperate with investigators.
Winton Hills ranks among the most violent neighborhoods for juveniles in Cincinnati with 34 assaults or killings in the past year. The two of the three neighborhoods with more incidents – Westwood and West Price Hill – have significantly higher overall populations and populations of juveniles, according to 2010 Census data.
'This is on all of us'
Councilwoman Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney said this most recent incident points to the need for more assistance for youth and families.
She said the city is working on mentorship and summer jobs programs to address resident's concerns.
"A big part of it is embracing our youth and keeping them busy and showing them there is a future for them," Kearney said. "We need to do more."
In the past several years, Cincinnati Police have launched programs to help Cincinnati's children who have been experienced violence or other trauma. Children In Trauma Intervention Camp (Citi Camp) starts in June and is open to youth ages 10 to 12. The department's "Shoot this, not that" program uses photography to give children a creative outlet.
Winton Hills is largely made up of two large public housing complexes: Winton Terrace and Findlater Gardens.
On Tuesday, outside the home of the girl killed in the stabbing, a neighbor pulled up in her car. She asked someone on the street if Nyaira had made it.
"No, ma'am," someone replied.
After the woman got out of her car, she told another woman on the street that her children wouldn't be playing outside anymore.
Others parents have reported that their children have been traumatized by the violence they have witnessed in Winton Terrace.
Shanika Jones was living there when bullets smashed through her windows and walls in 2017. A man was killed right by her front door in that shooting.
"(One) night my son woke me up at 4 a.m. screaming and hollering, running into the room saying that they were shooting," Jones told The Enquirer at the time. "He'll wake up in the middle of the night saying there is blood on his hands."
She said the boy, who was six at the time, started trying to carry a toy gun in his pocket because of what he saw on the street.
Councilman Greg Landsman has worked in the Winton Hills neighborhood in the past to attempt to improve the quality of life for residents there. He said: "This is on all of us."
"It's gut-wrenching and tragic, and a reminder of what's happening with way too many of our children," Landsman said. "We either invest in them and opportunities and the hope that real opportunities bring, or we don't. At the moment, we just don't invest in our children the way in which we should."
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