Roanoke’s National Night Out arrived after a weekend of shootings. While gun violence is trending downward citywide, Northwest remains the most impacted quadrant.
At Melrose Plaza’s National Night Out, music pulsed over the crowd gathering in the sprawling parking lot. Children tumbled around a bouncy house as families drifted from table to table, collecting handfuls of fliers and free merch. Law enforcement officers in uniform dotted the gathering.
At one table, Lloyd Merchant handed out the last of the RESET hats, representing the Roanoke Police Department’s Rapid Engagement of Support in the Event of Trauma program. As RESET’s coordinator, Merchant leads a team of volunteers that visits neighborhoods that have recently experienced traumatic events like gun violence.
Despite the festive atmosphere, the weight of Merchant’s work wasn’t far from his mind. That night, he said he hoped to recruit new volunteers to help with a difficult task ahead: responding to three shootings that had occurred within 48 hours…