JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Katrina Cook lost her son, 24-year-old Brandon Webb, in March 2018. He was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Sherwin Williams on Townsend Rd. in Jacksonville.
"Every time I think of my son, it's a sad feeling, hurt feeling, feeling of loss, feeling of despair," Cook explained.
Webb was a hairstylist with dreams of working with celebrities one day. Cook said he was constantly trying to perfect his craft. She still does not know who killed her son, but she says he was loved by everyone.
"I feel defeat because it's like, who doesn't want justice for losing their kid? Who doesn't want that? Everybody wants to get some kind of justice for losing someone in their family," Cook said.
While Cook continues to advocate for justice for her son, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a landmark advisory on gun violence Tuesday. Dr. Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis. Cook said this advisory should have come sooner.
"We need to do something. We're losing babies. If your goal is to state this as a health crisis, we need to do something now," Cook said.
The 39-page advisory breaks down the research compiled over the last few decades on gun violence and its affects on the population. According to the report, 54% of adults or their family members have experienced a firearm-related incident. Six in 10 adults also say they worry 'sometimes,' 'almost every day,' or 'every day' about a loved one being a victim of gun violence.
Colleen Rodriguez is the CEO of the LJD Jewish Family and Community Services. She said the stress and anxiety about shootings impacts the entire community.
"It changes our ability to feel safe. And if you don't feel safe, what does that do?” Rodriguez explained.
The advisory also focuses on children and gun violence. It stated half of 14 to 17-year-olds in the U.S. worry about school shootings. Rodriguez said parents should talk to their kids and help them process what they are seeing online or on TV.
"I do think we really need to be careful what our kids are hearing and seeing, and then explaining it in a way that makes sense for their further development," Rodriguez said.
While mass shootings only account for about 1% of all firearm-related deaths, they create trauma for an entire community. According to the advisory, 79% of adults report feeling stressed about a potential mass shooting.
The advisory also provided research into the attackers in mass shootings. It states from 2016-2020 nearly all attackers experienced a significant life stressor within five years before the attack. Rodriguez believes isolation and a lack of attachment contributes to those stressors.
"When you look at them, and you study them a little bit deeper, they didn't have a real attachment. They struggled in school, they were bullied, they didn't have close friendships. They weren't seeking that out. They were really in isolation. So I really do think we need to be having more conversations about isolation and attachment and healthy attachments," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez agreed with the surgeon general's declaration of gun violence as a public health crisis. She said the next step is getting community partners together to come up with a plan.
"I think there's going to be a lot of future dialogue and collaboration, and we're going to need to make sure that information is getting out," Rodriguez explained.
To help her process her grief, Cook wrote about her son's death. She is one of seven mothers, along with the author, Nikki Carswell, writing chapters for the book, Painful Tears of Silent Women, which comes out Aug. 3, 2024. Cook said more must be done now to prevent other mothers from feeling her same pain.
“It's time for boots on the ground. It's time for the education, workshops, it's time for all that stuff, all that stuff that we were talking about. Now that you've declared this, it's time to get to work," Cook said.