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28 / 04 / 20
Here at the Faith & Belief Forum we were saddened to hear about the shooting that took place on Monday night in the Queen’s Crescent area of Kentish Town, London, where our offices are situated. In the midst of this tragic event, members of the Queens Crescent community centre – who do fantastic work in the area – were instrumental in ensuring last night’s incident wasn’t fatal.
Our education consultant Katy, who lives in the area, has shared some reflections on her community coming together at this time:
“I live with my husband and two kids in the Queen’s Crescent community. Last night at about 7.30 pm we were standing chatting with other families on our terrace. Every day we have what we now call the ‘Evening Wave’ in our community. It was the kids’ idea! They run up to all the houses with elderly people in the neighbourhood and wave to them through the windows, to make them smile, and show them happy drawings.
We heard a loud bang, but thought it was a car backfiring, other neighbours shouted over to us that it was gunshots and we rushed inside. The police were incredible; they arrived immediately and taped the whole area off. A helicopter then landed in the local football play area.
We heard soon after, that a man had been shot, who then ran into the local Queens Crescent community centre who luckily were open; they’ve been quite literally keeping people alive in this community during Covid-19. Poverty levels have really risen in recent times and they are feeding people, as well as supporting the elderly who can become confused with aspects of the situation such as the long queues outside shops, and often just return home without having bought any food.
Two young men from the community centre who were preparing meals for Iftar helped save this man’s life. They were ready with specialist first aid kids and ran to attend to him. Most of the nation is socially distancing and these young people risked their lives and in doing so, brought us all hope.
I woke up still a little shaken and sad for my children who were fearful, as well as for everyone involved in the shooting. But I also felt a strong sense of how remarkably our community has come together and responded to difficult times. The cohesion across faiths, cultures and classes has been inspiring.”
It is heartening to see people from different communities providing support – and sometimes life-saving aid – to each other in these very challenging circumstances. We are reaching out to the Queen’s Crescent Community Association to see what we can do to help.
