Youngstown Councilwoman Anita Davis told reporters at a news conference Monday that the shooting death of Amya Monserrat, 15, at a South Side tavern Saturday night demands action. “We as a community need to … do better. We can’t accept this as normal.”

YOUNGSTOWN — Councilwoman Anita Davis said her 36 years as a Youngstown police officer “hardened” her a lot, though the shooting death of Amya Monserrat, 15, “is the kind of stuff that just rips at your heart and soul.”

The Valley Christian School student and cheerleader was shot outside of Martha’s Boulevard Tavern on Southern Boulevard on Saturday night. The girl was there attending a party, but police said they do not know what type of party.

She was “not the intended target” of the gunfire. “She was hit by a stray bullet,” said Capt. Jason Simon, head of the Youngstown Police Department detective division.

“Thoughts and prayers are all good, but we’ve got to do action,” Davis, D-6th Ward, said at a news conference Monday at the police department. “We can’t just sit back and just throw our hands up in the air and say there’s nothing we can do about it.

“We’ve got to wrap our arms around this family. But we, as a community, we’ve got to … do better. We can’t accept this as normal.”

TWO GROUPS SHOOTING

Lt. Mohammad Awad of the detective division said the shooting involved “two groups of people shooting at each other. We don’t know how many shooters were involved in each group, but there were two parties to this. And they weren’t alone.”

He said the incident that led to the gunfire did not involve a traditional sort of fistfight. “But there was some type of conflict that has been brewing over the course of a couple of weeks,” he said. The people who were shooting at each other were involved in the conflict, he said.

The parties “shot back and forth at that party, location, restaurant, whatever you want to call that, and about 10:36 p.m., they came back and began shooting at each other,” Awad said.

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, also spoke, saying: “A lot of people are not going to like to hear this, but you’ve got to consider who is trashing our community. It’s us trashing our community. You have to take into the fact who is killing our kids. It’s our kids killing our kids,” he said.

“Whether or not you are a mother or father, I’m sure your thinking was just like my mother’s thinking when I was a kid: ‘That’s my baby, my angel. He’s innocent,'” he said. “My mother stood in this courtroom and others and defended me to the death,” he said of the training room of the police department, which was the Youngstown Municipal Court for many years.

‘LOOK AT OURSELVES’

“And the whole time, I was guilty. We’ve got to look at ourselves. Sometimes the best thing to do for your baby is to understand he needs help. And by helping your baby, you save the lives of somebody else’s baby. It’s on us. We have to give solutions and answers to the problems we have in our own community.”

He added, “We have to take accountability upon ourselves and say, ‘This is our issue. This is our problem. This is our community.’ We have to work with the mayor, the police chief, the city council and give them the initiatives we need to see happen. But we also have to ask ourselves what is the sacrifice we are willing to make to make as parents and members of the community to see change. It’s on us.”

Simon said the police department needs the public’s help to solve the crime.

He asked the public to have “a serious talk with the young men and women in the community. And when this does happen, come forward and speak to law enforcement.

“Someone saw or and / or knows what happened. You may know them. They may be your brother. They may be your sister. They may be your friend, but that should not stop you from doing the right thing,” Simon said.

“Amya was a cheerleader at her school. She had recently … won some awards for her skills, and she was a leader among her cheerleading squad. And if the community wants to remember her as a leader at her young age, I think the community needs to do the right thing — step up and lead and speak to the investigators about what they saw or heard that night as we continue to do our work on our end.”

COMPLICITY

Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian said he wants people to understand what it means to be complicit in a murder.

“These fine detectives will solve this case. They will find out who the shooter was,” Limbian said of Saturday’s killing. “I want anyone who is assisting or will assist the shooter or shooters to understand that you can be and will be charged with complicity if you assist the shooter in any way. And that is the same level of offense as the homicide, as the murder.”

He said to anyone who assists the person who shot and killed Amya: “Understand that you are putting yourself at great risk of going to prison for the rest of your life. … Now is the time to come forward.”

When a question was raised about retaliation, Awad said he’s worked for the police department 12 years and has lived in the city all of his 39 years, “And I don’t recall a situation where a person who was not involved was retaliated against for coming forward and doing the right thing.”