PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Two more homicides Tuesday morning in Pine Bluff make the city's 19th and 20th for just this year.
A crime prevention program in the city wants to help, but is at a stand-still right now. It's an Indianapolis-based program known as the TenPoint Coalition.
Pine Bluff started the program last August, but they can't make the difference they want without help from the community.
TenPoint Coalition is a strategy to reduce homicides and crime prevention in a community.
The program is something citizens, like Inis Ray and Jesse Turner, said Pine Bluff desperately need right now.
"No city should have one homicide. It's heartbreaking, much less 20 or more," Ray said.
"There is no sense in Pine Bluff having 20 homicides in 232 days. That is simply just outrageous," Turner said.
Turner is the co-lead for the Pine Bluff National TenPoint Pen or Pencil Expansion Hub.
He was born and raised in Pine Bluff and started working with homicides in 1997 when Pine Bluff had seven homicides in four months. That is when he realized crime prevention is a community problem, not a law enforcement problem.
"No one should sit back and say, 'well we are going to let them handle it.' Everyone should be on board saying what can we do," he said.
Turner said, right now, him and his volunteers have everything set for the TenPoint Coalition to be implemented, but they need help igniting it.
"It's going to take some funding and we need funding and we need help. Can't say enough about that," he said.
Turner said they need anywhere from $5 to $10,000, at least for the first year.
He said this money would help get them to the two-day training in Indiana, so they can hit the ground running in Pine Bluff and be a tool for the police department, a department that citizens think needs some extra help.
"I do think our law enforcement needs more help financially. I think every city is having financial problems, but I think more money could go towards law enforcement and protecting those people in danger," Ray said.
Turner said it is all hands on deck to solve this problem.
"It puts a black spot on Pine Bluff and as we work with GoForward to make Pine Bluff a destination. We all have to see that need to get engaged," he said.
Once implemented, the TenPoint program would have things like mental health counselors available, GED help, resume workshops, and more for people in the community to get back on their feet.
Turner said when the program was implemented in one of Indiana's heavy crime neighborhoods, it reduced homicides to zero and they haven't had a single youth homicide since then.
He said he believes Pine Bluff can get to this point.