The City of Tulsa is planning some changes to curb youth gun violence, Mayor Monroe Nichols announced during a press conference on Monday afternoon.
His announcement comes two days after gunfire broke out at the 2025 Tulsa Juneteenth Festival, and less than two months after another fatal shooting occurred in the same area.
Over the weekend, one person was killed in a shooting, and at least seven others were injured.
"As we set out to celebrate something as universally positive as liberation over slavery, a life was lost," Nichols said.
Earlier in May, two men were shot by police, one fatally, after they fired their guns into a crowd. At least five other people were injured by gunfire, police said.
Nichols said, since he took office in December, the city has lost 26 people to gun violence.
"To the community, I understand the anxiety brought on by these events," he said. "But we are not going to let fear and the actions of a destructive criminal element erase the progress we are making as a city."
Along with the creation of a task force dedicated to addressing gun violence, Nichols said the Tulsa City Council will consider enforcing a curfew for young people in the downtown area. The restriction would run from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week.
The council will vote on the curfew on Wednesday, and it could go into effect as soon as the next day. The Bricktown district in Oklahoma City has a similar provision, enacted in 2023.
"I have a 17-year-old kid. I don't want him hanging out downtown," Nichols said. "They shouldn't be down there anyway. There's no reason to be hanging outside of a bar that you're not old enough to get in downtown Tulsa late at night. We're going to cut that out."
Nichols was joined by Tulsa Police Chief Dennis Larsen and other local, state and federal officials. They said the city's task force will focus on preventative efforts to support young Tulsans, addressing the root causes of gun violence in the city.
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