PHOENIX (AZFamily) —In the last two weeks, we’ve covered tragedy after tragedy involving teens in the Valley: teens involved in gun violence and even a deadly case of drinking and driving.
We’re digging into why our kids are making dangerous decisions.
This week alone, a teenage girl from Gilbert died Monday after a car she was driving slammed into a tree. The car was full of teens, and police say they were drinking.
Then two back-to-back shootings happened Thursday night.
The first one occurred near 37th and La Salle streets in south Phoenix. Around 7:30 p.m., police found three teen boys shot, one of them dying as a result. Detectives are still working out what they were doing and why they had guns.
In the second shooting that night, on 31st Avenue and Park Street, officers found another young boy shot. What happened there is still a mystery, too.
“Drinking, guns, violence escalating, you’re looking at dis-regulated emotions and taking out those dis-regulated emotions on other people,” said Katey McPherson, a mental health advocate who works with teens.
McPherson says the reasons kids turn to violence are more than just “a bad day”. Genetics, environment, inability to cope, and substances are all factors. A major one is also social media.
“The clicks and likes we saw with the Gilbert Goons and Preston Lord and social media plays a role in accelerating what’s going on,” McPherson said.
She also pointed to the recent violence across the country that kids have access to seeing with a click of an app.
“With social media, I mean here in Arizona I feel like last month with Charlie Kirks memorial, the shooting in Minnesota it was madness pure madness. I got so many phone calls from parents from one side and the other like ‘how do I talk to my kids about this?’ He saw him [Charlie Kirk] shot on TikTok. I mean that’s outrageous that our kids can access that,” McPherson added.
McPherson says there’s no “quick fix,” only education. She’s calling on parents to be more in tune with their kids, but also acknowledging they’re struggling too.
“Parents have never been as stressed as they are now, I think the whole environment is noisy and stressed and is always going to be a part of how a child acts to the world,” she said.
All three cases mentioned are still under investigation. It’s unclear whether any arrests have been made or if the teens will face charges.
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