A 6-year-old boy and a 42-year-old man were shot dead in Canton. The 42-year-old, Tracy Wilder, was changing the oil in his car when the bullet struck him. When his body was discovered, it was laid down by his car.

About a mile away in the back seat of a vehicle, a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head by a stray bullet. Two out of four suspects have been taken into custody, 24-year-old Tomar Smith and 16-year-old Obe Lee, and have both been charged. The two deaths and one injury have left the mayor of Canton in a tough spot but will lead to a major decision. Mayor William Truly made the executive choice to have a city-wide curfew mandate and will be in effect for the next two weeks. The mandate applies to everybody under the age of 18, unless with a parent/guardian.

The mandate was created the day after the double homicide of the 42-year-old man and the 6-year-old boy. Mayor Truly is hoping that with the mandate the gun violence will decrease. He is fed up with violence that has occurred in the city, but he is more fearful of the violence coming from young people, particularly with the suspects’ ages being as young as 16 and 24.

Mayor Truly wants this to be a very valuable lesson. He states, “As the mayor of the City of Canton, I said to those who govern our schools and to the church and churches of Canton and to all organizations, this violence must stop. Oftentimes perpetrated by young people who are just teenagers we have to teach that an eye for an eye is not the right way.”

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