The mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, was not phased by gunshots during a joint press conference Friday with the mayor of Kansas City.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones kept talking to reporters while shots were fired during the press conference, reported Fox 2.
I don’t flinch when gunshots ring out; my son and I often fall asleep to a lullaby of gunshots.
Mayor @QuintonLucasKC, Ald. @shanecohn, and I joined survivors and @TheJusticeDept for a neighborhood talk and walk to see community violence intervention programs up close. pic.twitter.com/9PQUHqArtV
— Mayor Tishaura O. Jones (@saintlouismayor) October 29, 2021
“I don’t flinch when gunshots ring out; my son and I often fall asleep to the lullaby of gunshots,” Jones tweeted. (RELATED: ‘I Guess I Am’: St. Louis Sheriff Responds As Inmates Trash City Jail And Reporters Ask ‘Who’s In Charge?’)
Part of the two-day meeting with the mayors focused on gun violence prevention and community violence, according to a press release from Jones’ office. “Regional collaboration helps us listen and learn from each other, and St. Louis was proud to host Mayor Quinton Lucas for this trip,” Jones said.
“This is the sort of thing that happens in too many American cities, part of why I’m in St. Louis (Friday),” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said, according to Fox 2.
St. Louis’ homicide rate was 30% higher in 2020 than it had been in any of the past 50 years. The city’s police chief John Hayden said officer morale was “being drained” from the spike in deadly crime.