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HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Houston’s mayor and police chief met with Lamar High School students Tuesday about improving safety in the aftermath of the murder of a Lamar student two weeks ago.
Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters after the meeting that he will be adding more police officers to ten of the HISD campuses, starting immediately. He did not immediately have a list of those schools.
Mayor Sylvester Turner says the meeting was spurred by a letter he received from one of the students at Lamar. Turner says the 17-year-old who wrote him was speaking for “all of the students on every campus” with her letter to the mayor following the murder of Lamar High School student De’Lindsey Mack.
“She was starting to lose hope,” said Turner. “That was the part that got my full attention.”
“I think it’s really important for everybody to not be afraid to go to school, to walk home,” said Elizabeth Nelson-Fryar, the Lamar senior who wrote the letter.
The mayor and police chief discussed action plans for safer schools with Nelson-Fryar and her classmates during a lunch conference room meeting.
“We’re working with other partners to create safe zones and areas within our city,” said Turner.
The mayor added that he’ll work with legislature on ways to reduce the number of guns on the street, and he’ll work with police on tackling the gang problem.
“We’ll work to reduce the number of gangs that exist in our city and the gang violence,” said Turner.
Acevedo says there are no public updates in the investigation of the murder of De’Lindsey Mack outside of Lamar High School, but the chief says he does believe it was a gang-related shooting.
“We’ve got two gangs in the south end of the city that have been feuding for years,” said Acevedo. “We’re gonna be flies on stink, and they’re not gonna like it. It’s coming, and what’s coming is not gonna be good for them if they don’t get it together.”
There are still no arrests in the murder of the Lamar senior. The mayor took the opportunity after the meeting to ask people to work with police in solving this crime.
“And it’s not snitching,” said Turner. “It’s not snitching. It’s not snitching. Anybody who wants to do bad things to any student, any adult—that person doesn’t deserve any protection—none.”
The mayor says the city and HISD are also working with Microsoft to beef up communications, so that parents and student are adequately informed should there be a lockdown situation in the future.