Pittsburgh police join Hill District community members to create mural designed to prevent violence

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police, local children and other members of Pittsburgh came together to create a mural designed to help prevent gun violence.

The mural was painted in Pittsburgh’s Hill District at Salem’s Market and Grill on Center Avenue. The grocery store is dedicating three sides of its building to help create the mural, making it the largest in Pittsburgh.

The idea to create the community mural is Kyle Holbrook’s. He’s an artist who grew up in Wilkinsburg and has strong family ties to the Hill District. When it’s finished, the mural will have interactive QR codes to provide an educational experience.

Sunday, the undercoat process began, with the color orange to represent the another theme of the mural, which is to raise gun violence awareness.

“I’ve been shot at several times, I’ve had most of my best friends have been victims of gun violence. I’ve lost family members to gun violence,” said Holbrook.

Holbrook is encouraging everyone who works on the mural to write messages of hope and peace on the wall, saying those messages will be there forever, even when the mural is complete.

Some youth members have written their names or left handprints on the wall as they supported the project.

“We gotta stop the violence we just have to come together which is pretty much a little bit of a problem now a days because we are all seeing the differences in each other instead of putting aside those differences,” said Dominique Hamlin.

The mural about stopping gun violence is intended to be a symbolic image, demonstrating to the future what can happen when people come together.

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