BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Last Tuesday, 22-year-old Joseph Tabor was gunned down outside a house on Deshler Street off Broadway in Buffalo's Fillmore district.
Stop the Violence Coalition President Murray Holman has been to hundreds of homicide scenes, but he says this one was different.
"Usually right after it happens you see a candle, a teddy bear, or something out here, and this is like it didn't exist, it didn't exist," said Murray.
Tabors' killing marks the 26th homicide in the city this year. Holman says many neighborhoods have become overrun with drug houses that are destroying communities.
"Certain houses where individuals post up at abandoned houses and take over the block. The kids fear they can’t come outside and play. Then all of the sudden you get someone who gets shot. And here we are again territorial gang disputes and young men that just don't care," said Holman.
Fillmore District Councilmember David Franczyk says he's been working vigorously with the police department to weed out some of these drug houses. But he says he needs to hear from residents first.
"I'll get on the phone with police and if we get a specific address, we'll call it right in and talk to the commissioner, but in some cases some could slip through the cracks until the neighborhood has to also inform on these houses anonymously, nobody's going to blow them in or anything but people need to become active also," said Franczyk.