Missouri must look to public health solutions for gun violence problems, experts say

Arletha Bland-Manlove cried out desperately for her nephew, driving with her sister from one end of Kansas City to the other, looking for him.

She knew he had been shot, but she didn’t know how or why, or which hospital he had been taken to. She didn’t know how badly he was hurt. As she drove, she bargained for his life.

“‘Please God, he’ll do this, he’ll do that, if he just makes it through,’” Arletha said. “I never believed he would die.”

With five bullet wounds in his body, Matthew Bland-Williams was already beyond saving by the time they found him at Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence. He died on July 23, 2020, just three months after his 26th birthday.

Read more: https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/gun-violence-missouri/article248528560.html