From 2009-17, I lived in Atlanta with my wife and children. We moved south for my seminary education at Emory University, but doors opened after graduation and we decided to stay.
As we were growing our family in Georgia, it became clear that something was wrong back home in Fort Wayne. While I was excited about the great things happening downtown, I became troubled by the increasing levels of violence. The first year that raised my concern was 2013, when Fort Wayne surpassed 40 homicides for the first time since 1997. We surpassed this mark three more times in what became our worst decade ever for homicides, with 2016 breaking the single-year record at 49. This was also the year my first cousin was murdered – an earth-shattering family tragedy that prompted our move back home.
