Students in Crown Heights hold gun violence walkout

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Wearing orange t-shirts and carrying signs that read “Guns are the death of us” and “Bullets don’t pay favorites,” hundreds of 7th and 8th grade students in Crown Heights hit the streets Friday morning to raise awareness of gun violence.

Students said the purpose of the march was to focus on gun violence on the streets surrounding their schools and push for change. 

“I was walking home from school and I heard gunshots and I thought I was going to die,” said student ambassador Darrell Howard. “My brother told me to get down so I got down and I don’t know what else happened after that.”

“It’s not normal, “said Lindsay Herz, a social studies teacher. “It’s something we need to name and change because it’s unfair for young people to be the people in charge of taking care of an issue that’s this large.”

Friday's event was part of the 3rd annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day Walkout, which was launched in 2017 in honor of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Chicago just a week after performing at President Barack Obama's second inaugural parade.