After Sereinat’e Henderson Drive-By Shooting, Berkeley Councilmember Bartlett Calls For Task Force

On Wednesday, 19-year-old Sereinat’e Henderson (which sounds like Sereinity Henderson) was shockingly murdered – shot in a senseless drive-by shooting that’s marked an uptick in gun violence in Berkeley, California in 2020, over 2019.

On Thursday, Sereinat’e Henderson’s family held a vigil at the site in South Berkeley where Henderson was killed. Her family members and Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett gathered to mourn and to remember Sereinat’e and call for an end to the gun violence that has plagued that part of Berkeley this year.

As mentioned here at Oakland News Now, earlier, Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett (who authored a comprehensive police reform legislation called The George Floyd Community Safety Act) holds that The Pandemic is responsible for the uptick in gun violence in Berkeley. He and Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín are forming a regional task force to address the problem. The KRON take left out mention of the role of the Pandemic, and Councilmember Bartlett’s comments; the video-blog above has his thoughts on the Coronavirus and Berkeley gun violence.

Gun Violence Long A Problem In Berkeley City Council Districts 2 and 3

The location of the drive-by-killing of Sereinat’e Henderson, at Harper and Prince Streets near Malcolm X Elementary School, is in a part of Berkeley, South Berkeley, that has been haunted by gun violence for some time. That’s also true for Berkeley City Council District 2. Bartlett said that he and Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín aim to form a task force that includes East Bay Mayors of Oakland, Emeryville, and other cities.

Stay tuned.