BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — For months, the 7 News I-Team has been digging into data, working to figure out which neighborhoods are seeing the highest number of school-adjacent shootings. Those shootings are defined as within 500 yards of a school.
The data is eye-opening, if not concerning. It paints a picture of children impacted on more than just a physical level.
August shooting leaves one dead
Hours after two people were shot, one killed, on Woodlawn Avenue in Buffalo, Cameron Wallace was outside cleaning up. There was an outdoor party the night those two people were shot.
"It's just sad, man. It's sad," Wallace said.
He told the 7 News I-Team he wasn't there for the shooting but explained the outdoor gathering happens every summer.
"Condolences to the family and all that," Wallace said. "I'm just out doing the small part I can do."
Down the street, Brittany Hill said she's become desensitized to the violence.
"When you grew up in these types of neighborhoods, some part of you is used to it," Hill said.
Hill's two children, two-year-old Angel and six-year-old Andre, play outside on their bikes. Their dog is nearby.
"We might hear it," Hill said. "They really don't know what it is. They think it might be firecrackers. They don't know. They're too young for me to even explain it to them."
Buffalo Public School 53 nearby shooting scene
Hill can't pretend her children don't see what's left behind after those so-called "fireworks." Her kids aren't alone.
In the center of this neighborhood is Community School 53. Within 500 yards of this one school, data obtained by the 7 News I-Team — in collaboration with the Gun Violence Data Hub from The Trace — shows there have been almost 30 school-adjacent shootings between 2017 and 2025.
That's the most of any other public school in the City of Buffalo.
Pastor James Giles is a violence interrupter. He explains these crime scenes cause trauma in a child's life.
"It's staggering, but more importantly, these are grade school children. Things are going on in life that they should not have to experience and they should not even have to be aware of. But the fact that that's happening here and happening in this particular neighborhood — and this is also the neighborhood where 5/14 took place," Giles said. "So, there's a lot of tragedy."
5/14 references the 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, blocks away from this school. Ten black people were shot and killed by a white supremacist. Three others were hurt but survived.
Impact of gun violence on children
One of the impacts, according to Dr. Brian Wade, is test scores and a lack of positive educational outcomes.
Wade studies gun violence at the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany. He cites his colleague's research in drawing that conclusion, which, he says, creates longer-term inequalities.
"It creates a sort of vicious cycle, wherein the neighborhoods themselves become sort of more and more vulnerable over time to more and more gun violence," Wade said.
According to The Trace, most of the shootings near School 53 happened between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. — overnight — when school is not in session.
"Just by hearing gunfire, let alone knowing someone who's been shot, witnessing something like that, waking up one morning and seeing yellow tape or the little cups they put to capture the shells, these things all have profound impacts on children," he said.
Wade says the community needs to mobilize resources for this neighborhood, thinking more big picture.
"Are we doing things to support families in these neighborhoods?" Wade questioned. "Are we doing things to ensure they hey, maybe we can do something to make folks feel safe?"
Drantch: Thinking of a student more holistically?
Wade: Exactly. Not just thinking about the violence incident itself, but what are other sort of downstream sequelae that are impacting residents in those neighborhoods, children in those neighborhoods.
School-adjacent shootings have gone down
That same data shows school-adjacent shootings have gone down city-wide since 2017.
But Buffalo still has a higher rate compared to the rest of New York State. The city is ranked Number 5, according to The Trace, of 30 similarly sized cities nationwide.
"For children, we try to do the best we can to maintain that sense of safety for them as long as we can," Wade said. "We want to protect them. We want to shield them from some of the rigors and dangers of the world. But for some children, if they're being exposed to something like gunfire early on in the life course, that sense of safety can be eroded over time."
A "community crisis"
According to a 2024 National Institutes of Health report, certain groups experience disproportionate impacts from gun violence exposure. That includes Black children.
According to The Trace, at School 53, more than 70% of the student population is Black.
Drantch: That has got to shape their lives moving forward.
Giles: Yes. So it depends, Ed, what environment they're going into in terms of where they live. How caring their parent center environment is. If there's a lot of angst in their parents' environment, this becomes another thing added to that angst. But [if] they're in a very caring situation, very supportive situation, those parents will help young individuals get through this. They still will come out right. As you see, many people in our neighborhood, they do come out right.
That's something Brittany Hill considers, watching her kids grow up. She wants to keep her kids inside but knows that isn't a likely reality.
"I have to believe that the Lord got my kids covered at all times," she said. "That's the best thing I could do."
Cameron Wallace, though, is trying to set an example for the younger generation. He knows exactly who is watching.
"It's family. Community is family, so [got to] keep everything clean around here," he said.
Wallace explains the next generation needs to do better to change course for this community.
No one from the Buffalo Public School District would speak on camera about this issue.
Instead, a spokesperson released this statement to the 7 News I-Team:
"This is a community crisis, and the entire community must become part of the solution because this type of violence has no place in our neighborhoods. While the district has no authority to get involved in attractions in the community that do not involve our students or did not happen on school grounds, the district has a strong working relationship with the Buffalo Police Department and we partner with other community organizations to help ensure our schools remain safe and welcoming spaces for our students, staff, families, and visitors."
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