(WXYZ) — On Friday, community leaders banded together to demand an end to violence against children amid a spike this summer.
It came as there have been at least seven shootings involving a child or teen in metro Detroit over the past month.
Watch the latest reports in the videos below:
Commissioner Darryl Woods, one of the event's organizers, talked about who would be speaking at the event.
"We have some of Detroit's finest leading pastors in the city of Detroit. We have school principals, a plethora of them, over a dozen of them. We got the police chief. We got the sheriff's department. We have community leaders, CVI groups, and we have citizens. People have been impacted by violence here today," Woods said.
In Detroit this summer, we've seen multiple kids caught in the crossfire, and several didn't survive.
Watch below: 'Just really, really tragic.' 2 kids injured in drive-by shooting on Detroit's east side
At the end of June, a 4-year-old and an 18-year-old were killed and a 17-year-old was injured at Skinner Playfield. This past Sunday, a 6-year-old was hit and killed by a stray bullet, and just yesterday, an 8-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were shot while sleeping when someone opened fire on their house.
“Anytime, any child, any person gets shot in the City of Detroit, it’s one too many individuals," Detroit Police Assistant Chief Eric Ewing said.
On Friday morning, the community is set to come together at the Spirit of Detroit to rise up and say enough is enough.
Many Detroiters like Helen Starks have become extremely concerned about the rash of gun violence happening lately in the city.
Starks was awakened by gunshots in her neighborhood yesterday.
“I'm afraid standing here telling you. but, somebody has to say something. you know, somebody has to step up. We have to step up and continue to try to work together," she said.
Those shots entered a neighbor's home where an 8-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were both hit by gunfire. One was shot in the arm, the other was shot in the foot.
While both children survived, Starks says the greater Detroit community must fight for change.
“Honestly, like we have to stick together. we have to stick together," Starks said.
“Every week we’re seeing children be shot and killed, every single week in the city of Detroit. and, sometimes you have shootings almost daily," Community Organizer Dr. Marvin Cotton Jr. said.
He's part of a team organizing the Hour of Power event at the Spirit of Detroit at 12 p.m. Friday.
He says it’s a gathering of residents, community leaders and clergy in a call to action for change and a chance to pray for peace in the city.
“The message is unity because we work better when we work as a collective," Cotton said.
