BEAUMONT, Texas — There's a new initiative to help find who shot Joshua Yates. The Beaumont man was killed in his home on New Year's Eve.
His family is asking those in the community that have been impacted by gun violence to "man up and put the guns down.”
And they're not stopping with social media pleas. The family has a billboard up.
They said they're not going to stop searching until his killer is found.
Gun violence has rocked this community and robbed loved ones of future memories with their families.
Some of the changemakers of the Man Up, Guns Down movement, started by Sheryl Jackson, say gun violence is out of control and a good place to start is by giving Southeast Texas children healthy outlets.
“So what are we supposed to do? We need to get together as a community on a common ground,” Jackson said. “Open these doors. There is a lot of buildings, there are rooms, different organizations that can help us. Like with tutoring, you know, make things fun.”
Some of these mothers and wives in this group say they have lost too much already, from their own homes. And intervening is the answer for LaToya who lost both her sons to gun violence.
“I lost one of my kids in March of 2012, and then my baby boy in June 2012, so I think it's a good movement, to stop the violence. Because our kids need this. Our kids can't even grow up without someone killing them,” LaToya said.
Mother Duchess Hooper lost her son Elijah.
“Too many of our children dying out here, and it's not supposed to be parents burying kids, but kids burying the parents,” Hooper said.
Even members of the community who don't have a personal tie to loss, still want to play a proactive role in healing their community like John Leblanc Jr.
“There are kids here who need a chance at life,” Leblanc Jr., said. “This should not be like the rest of the world in constant violence. That's why I am here now and say we have to put the guns down”
Organizers say it's about being proactive for change, so they don't lose another young life. That is the message for the “Man Up, Guns Down Movement”, to prevent people like Joshua Yates from being gone too soon.