Last year, Aida Salgado – concerned about the path her son Donovan “Keith” Salgado was taking – started an anti-violence group called Mothers and Fathers in Arms. On Oct. 17, she received the gut-wrenching news that her middle son – who had started associating with a gang called the Money Boys, though she said he was not a member – was shot to death at the age of 17, just a few blocks away from her front door in Campos Plaza. (Hockeem Smith, 24, was charged in the shooting.)
According to Ms. Salagado, youth violence has only worsened in her neighborhood of 20 years since she began reaching out to teens and other parents a year ago. She now believes it’s out of control. Organizations like the Boys Club of New York on 10th Street and Avenue A serve as an alternative for young boys in the East Village who face pressure to join gangs (Ms. Salgado’s three sons, including Keith, spent time there as children), but as The Local’s video shows, they can only do so much.
