Detroit dresses Spirit of Detroit in orange to open a month of action against gun violence

For the second June in a row, Detroit opened Gun Violence Awareness Month by changing one thing about its most recognizable civic landmark. City officials and more than 100 community members gathered downtown on June 5 to dress the Spirit of Detroit statue in an orange jersey, a gesture that has grown into an annual show of momentum in the city's years-long campaign against gun violence.

The backdrop is real progress. Detroit Police First Assistant Chief Franklin Hayes told the gathering that homicides are down 13 percent compared to the same period last year. That extends a 2025 in which the city recorded 165 criminal homicides, the fewest in six decades and a 19 percent drop from the year before. Nonfatal shootings fell to 447 last year, down 26 percent, and carjackings dropped by 46 percent.

The June 5 ceremony led into a full day of community action Saturday, when hundreds gathered at Church of the Messiah in the Islandview neighborhood for the annual Silence the Violence march, now in its 19th year. Pastor Barry Randolph started the march in 2008 with 50 people because the community was tired of burying its neighbors and children. What began as a neighborhood march has grown into a citywide movement: the Islandview community, where the church is based, has not had a gun violence incident in more than 15 years, drawing the attention of public health researchers. Saturday's event was followed by a resource fair and a chance for residents to surrender unwanted firearms through Disarmory Ministries.

The institutional investment behind those efforts has deepened under Mayor Mary Sheffield. In February, she signed an executive order creating the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety, a new city agency that coordinates prevention work across six areas: community violence intervention, conflict resolution and restorative practices, survivor advocacy, domestic violence prevention, re-entry support, and group violence intervention. The office took effect in April under violence prevention advocate Teferi Brent, who also spoke at Saturday's rally. The Hudson-Webber Foundation committed a grant to help it build a community-driven prevention infrastructure.

Sheffield's office extends a network the city has been assembling since 2023, when it launched ShotStoppers using federal recovery funds. Six community organizations, including FORCE Detroit, Detroit 300, and Wayne Metro, each work a defined neighborhood zone to disrupt violence before it escalates. Each group holds a multi-year contract and can earn additional funding if violence in their zone drops faster than the citywide rate. At the state level, Governor Gretchen Whitmer re-established a gun violence prevention task force on June 4, building on what she described as historic progress reducing firearm injuries across Michigan.

The orange jersey stays on the Spirit of Detroit through June. The march that started in Islandview with 50 people is now a citywide institution, and Detroit's homicide numbers are the lowest they have been in six decades.