CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Police Department honored a cadet who lost her life to gun violence – the youth services unit dedicated a room to Aurora McCarter, who was killed last year, hoping it will spark positive change in the community.

“She made everybody smile. She was just like a great cadet. You would have been very great to meet her,” police cadet Ka-Lija Todd said. “It would have been very great, like she was extremely sweet, and I feel like everybody should get to know her even though she’s not on this Earth with us anymore.”

The walls of the Aurora McCarter teen room are a canvas – the plan is to decorate the walls with art in her memory.

“I think it’s going to be a special place and a safe place that young people can come and spend time,” Cincinnati Police chief Eliot Isaac said.

The goal is to prevent what happened to McCarter from happening to anyone else – to put an end to youth violence.

“It takes everyone to solve this problem, we all need to be a part of the solution,” Isaac said.

Groups from across the Tri-State have stepped up to play their part. Q-KIDZ Dance Team is putting their emotion into art and their “Stop the Violence” musical.

“I hope it is life-changing for someone, you know. I hope it gives them the message to put the noise down,” Q-KIDZ Dance Team founder and director Marquicia Jones-Woods said. “I hope it gives the message of love that we need more love.”

The Q-KIDZ will perform “Stop the Violence” at Smale Park Aug. 13 and at Washington Park on Aug. 15.

“Dance is an outlet for my kids,” Jones-Woods said. “Dance is the opportunity for them to come and release whatever is going on with their day-to-day life. They can come in here and they can leave it on the dance floor.”

“To see, you know, other organizations willing to engage with our young people – I think that’s going to make a difference,” Isaac said. “We’ll see, you know, our city turn the corner.”

CINCINNATI — In the wake of a shooting that left two teenagers dead and three more injured late Sunday night, community anti-violence advocate Peterson Mingo suggested an enforced curfew would prevent more incidents of youth violence over the summer.

“A 10 p.m. curfew would be beautiful,” he said.

Cincinnati already has one, but it wouldn’t have applied to most of the teenagers affected by the July 4 confrontation in Smale Park.

The city's statute, which was passed in 1994, requires teens under 16 to be home by 10 p.m. and teens 16-18 to head back by midnight.

Anyone found breaking the curfew can be cited, and their parents can legally be charged with a misdemeanor.

Only one of the teenagers wounded in the Sunday shooting — a 15-year-old boy — would have been subject to the 10 p.m. curfew as it stands in Cincinnati’s city charter that night.

The others were all 16 or older, including the two young men whom police later identified as the shooters. Chief Eliot Isaac said 16-year-old Milo Watson and 19-year-old Dexter Wright Jr. became involved in a confrontation that escalated into a shooting around 10:48 p.m. It killed them both.

Three other teens — the 15-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl — were injured.

Another time limit was approaching when it happened, however: The 11 p.m. closing of Smale Park. Police estimated about 400 people had come to watch fireworks over the river, and officers were moving them out of the park so it could close.

In statements after the shooting, Isaac and Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley each said that an additional curfew might not have helped prevent the attack if the park closing and presence of police officers didn’t deter the shooters.

"It's the holiday weekend,” Isaac said. “Who doesn't want to come out and see fireworks on a holiday weekend? I don't think that is the answer to what occurred last night. I think we need responsible adults to be responsible for juveniles."

CINCINNATI —

As investigators look into questions about what led to a mass shooting in Smale Park, new crime cameras were going up Tuesday that could have provided some of those answers.

The shooting rang out just after Fourth of July fireworks on Sunday. Five teenagers were hit, two were killed.

Police said Milo Watson, 16 and Dexter Wright Jr., 19 were apparently trying to kill each other and both succeeded.

Some details about what happened are still unclear. Police have not said who they believe pulled a weapon first or what happened to the guns after the shooting.

“We have not recovered any firearms,” said Cincinnati police Chief Eliot Isaac.

There were no crime cameras in the area where the shooting began to help sort out the details until now.

Crews are putting up the first two of 10 new cameras planned for Smale Park.

The plan to put the cameras in the park has been the works since problems started to show up on police radar about a year ago.

The cameras will be part of the Real Time Crime camera network of more than 200 cameras across the city. The cameras are monitored and recorded by Cincinnati Police 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The two newest cameras are going up in the area where the shooting began.

Park workers said the cameras were supposed to go up last Thursday, but were delayed by weather.

CINCINNATI —

"I was about to get in bed when somebody called to say, 'Miss Katrina, your daughter's shot.' I'm like, what? Like, you know, to me that's one of the worst calls that you can ever get in your life," Trina said.

A bandaged left arm is a painful reminder for Trina and her 16-year-old daughter about what happened Sunday night at The Banks along Cincinnati's riverfront.

That’s where five people were shot Sunday, two fatally. Police said two teenagers engaged in a shootout, with three innocent people caught in the crossfire. The two teens shooting were killed, officials said.

Trina's daughter was among those struck by the gunfire.

"I was hoping that it was really just an arm wound," Trina said. "I was hoping that it was really just a flesh wound."

At first, Trina's teenage daughter thought she'd been hit by a firework that somehow veered off course. Then she realized she'd been hit by a bullet.

The teen said she was on The Banks after spending a fun night with friends seeing a new action movie at Newport on the Levee.

The group walked across the Taylor Southgate Bridge to get a ride home ahead of a midnight curfew.

The teen said a snow-cone vendor caught her eye and as she walked to get a treat, the bullet found her.

Trina, a medical professional, couldn't help but think the worst until she was able to find out how her daughter was doing.

"I don't know what it could have been," Trina said. "Because, you know, me, like, I see it all the time. It can go through the arm and go into the chest. So I didn't really know what was happening."

Grateful her daughter is going to be okay, Trina hopes everyone, including other parents and mentors, will do more to help young people realize the futility of gun violence.

"I actually feel like we (sic) failing on our kids, to be honest," Trina said. "It’s scary. I'm happy that my daughter is still here."

Trina also hopes city leaders will focus more on ways to help young people find meaningful job opportunities. She's a firm believer in the notion that idle hands can lead to very bad outcomes.