{"id":29683,"date":"2023-02-03T11:45:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=29683"},"modified":"2023-02-03T11:45:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T16:45:14","slug":"ministries-offer-food-and-help-in-lakeland-community-shaken-by-drive-by-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/02\/03\/ministries-offer-food-and-help-in-lakeland-community-shaken-by-drive-by-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministries offer food and help in Lakeland community shaken by drive-by shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three days after gunshots rang out on North Iowa Avenue, a very different scene unfolded just blocks away on North Vermont Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes when a disaster hits, people feel lonely,\u201d said event organizer Bobby Williams. \u201cThey feel like no one cares or don\u2019t know what to do. So, tell them that we\u2019re there for them. What can we do? How can we help you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams\u2019 ministries, The Freedom Church and The Freedom Food Tour<\/a>, were among the groups taking part Thursday evening. He said The Freedom Food Tour works to provide necessities to communities in the wake of catastrophic events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen people think disaster, they think hurricane, tornado \u2014 you know, a natural disaster,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there are all kinds of disasters that happen that are manmade. So, this was one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police say 11 people were injured in a drive-by shooting on North Iowa Avenue Monday. Lakeland Police said Tuesday they\u2019re confident they found the car involved in the attack, but as of Thursday night, no arrests had been made. Some neighbors say the incident has left them shaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t respect each other, they don\u2019t respect life,\u201d said Denise King, who came to North Vermont Avenue when she was told the ministries were handing out food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King lives on the other side of the road from where the shooting happened and said she had safety concerns in the neighborhood before Monday, but has become more cautious following the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary because what you see in other places, you\u2019re so grateful \u2014 \u2018I thank God this didn\u2019t happen here.\u2019 Now, it\u2019s here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams said the goal was to find out what resources the groups can connect residents to or provide them with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can we help you financially, you know?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that ain\u2019t always money, but that\u2019s bleach, cleaning supplies, food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King said the unexpected food giveaway will make a difference to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means a lot when you live on a fixed income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams said the ministries plan to return to the lot on North Vermont Avenue on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., this time to grill up hot dogs and hamburgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone with information on Monday\u2019s shooting is asked to contact the Lakeland Police Department. Heartland Crimestoppers is also offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved. Tips can be reported by calling 1-800-226-TIPS (8477).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three days after gunshots rang out on North Iowa Avenue, a very different scene unfolded just blocks away on North Vermont Avenue. \u201cSometimes when a disaster hits, people feel lonely,\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[4437],"class_list":["post-29683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-ministries-offer-food-and-help-in-lakeland-community-shaken-by-drive-by-shooting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}