JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sunday night's shooting that included the death of an 11-month-old boy, his 18-year-old mother and another woman prompted Jacksonville's mayor, sheriff and City Council members to speak out again on the importance of ending violence in the community.
"I continue to be mad as hell this has to stop," Mayor Lenny Curry said. "When you have a child shot and killed and other children in and around the event, it is a jolt to the community. Understand, we are dealing with these issues every day. We are looking how resources are allocated. That's what people of Jacksonville need to know."
Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams spoke less than 24 hours after the triple murder near the Cleveland Arms Apartments. They spoke in front of portraits of Jacksonville's children killed that were posted in the atrium of City Hall last week.
WATCH: Paintings of violent crime victims
Williams said his investigators have received outstanding cooperation in Sunday night's murders and have several strong leads on finding the gunman, saying more information will be released soon.
"Our goal today is to bring some justice to this case, and we're working hard to do that," Williams said. "The little bit of information you know may be the last piece of information we need to solve this case."
Curry said they would continue to fund manpower and equipment and invest in a program to help young people avoid getting started in a life of crime.
"We are going to remain focused on this until this problem is solved," Curry said.
Earlier in the day, City Council members reviewed a sobering Juvenile Justice report on violent crime in Jacksonville in the past year. While there are shooting, stabbing and assaults in all part of town, the part of three ZIP codes in Northwest Jacksonville -- 32202, 32204, 32206 and 22209 -- had between 50 and 98 violent crimes per square mile between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016.
Council member Reggie Brown, who represents District 10 and the area around Cleveland Arms Apartments, is frustrated by what's happening.
"We are going to have to learn how to disagree without being violent," Brown said. "I think that's one of the biggest challenges: We turn to violence when we disagree with each other."
The city has spent millions over the years addressing these crimes with the Jacksonville Journey program, created in 2006 after a violent summer in Jacksonville that included the drive-by shooting death of 8-year-old DreShawna Davis. This year, $9 million was budgeted to continue battling crime.
The current head of the program said something has to change.
"We started the Journey nine years ago and, quite candidly, we got off the track. We have to deal with the underlying problem that leads to these violent crimes, and we know a big problem is lack of education," W.C. Gentry said.
MAD DADS urge community involvement
Vice President of the MAD DADS community outreach organization AJ Jordan said he, much like other city officials, are angered by Sunday night’s shooting.
“This is the second baby. We had baby Aiden back in January. Now we have this little baby that's been killed. That's too many babies and too much violence in general in our city,” Jordan said.
Jordan said he believes community involvement is the key to curbing violence.
WATCH: MAD DADS reaction to mass shooting
“We have to be involved,” Jordan said. “We have to know what our kids are doing. Where they're at. Who they're hanging with, and that will curb a lot of this violence -- if we know what our children are doing.”
Jordan added that the community needs to be more vocal regarding those committing violence or else crimes like Sunday night’s will continue to repeat itself.
“We are well over 100 homicides this year in our city, and that's too many families hurting in our city,” Jordan said. “We can do something about that as a community.”
Jordan said parents need to communicate with their children about alternatives to violence and conflict resolution. He said MAD DADS conduct classes that teach alternatives to violence.
"Parents can teach conflict resolution," Jordan said. "I can talk to their children about ways to deal with violence instead of guns, fighting, different techniques they can use. MAD DADS operates classes in that matter. So it's different things parents can do."