Yakima in Gang Crisis

YAKIMA -- City leaders are calling the gang violence upswing a crisis in Yakima, and may soon declare a state of emergency. We've been bringing you video from various shootings the last few days. Now, some feel the city needs an immediate change before worse happens.

Gang related shootings have been steady lately. You may remember footage of the double shooting that happened Monday night. That had Action News questioning residents on national night out. "Do you feel safe in your own neighborhood?" we asked. "Usually I don't go out that much. I try to keep the kids more inside," Norma Valencia said. "It's getting too much," William Bailey added. He said he was nearly tazered by a teen Monday night. Rayna Thimsen is taking extra safety precaution. "When I come to this park I do not come by myself. I always have someone."

It's a problem council members call a crisis. "I do believe when you have a shooting and that level of violence, it seems like every day in our city, that we must consider that a crisis," Council Member, Sonia Rodriguez told us.

They believe national night out will re-group neighborhoods against gang violence. The city hopes the event will help with crime prevention. But they say more still needs to be done.

"We're going to put a lot of bodies behind this," Yakima Police Chief, Sam Granato started, "It might even be as much as 100% of our staff on weekend nights." Police have already been given the go-ahead to start re-focusing their staff against gang activity within budget. Soon, the city might declare a state of emergency. "We're going to respond accordingly. We're not going to take this stuff anymore and the gang members are going to have to start looking over their shoulders for police units that are going to be looking at them," Granato said.

They're looking at the legality of a few things they would do under the declaration. The ideas: divert more officers to gang crime, create check points throughout the city, increase overtime, and cancel some scheduled vacations. "To make our community safe, to address this problem, we do need some sort of immediate response. It's just going to continue to grow," Rodriguez fears. But so will the action against gang violence.

Council members plan to call a special meeting within the next week to find out what they can do and what money they may be able to pull together to better fund police actions against gang violence.