Growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a community she now represents in the state Assembly, Latrice Walker often relied on her older brother Mark to babysit and look after her.

“Mark would walk me to school in the mornings," Walker said. "He was the person who poured my cereal and milk for breakfast."

Fourteen years her senior, Walker remembers that summer day in 1987 when Mark tragically lost his life to gun violence. He had just left her before heading to the nearby public housing complex located at 10 Amboy Street, where he was struck by deadly gunfire.

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Adams wants to rollback criminal justice reforms in Albany which has been met with resistance from state lawmakers

  • One of the leading voices pushing back against the mayor is Assemblymember Latrice Walker of Brooklyn who lost a brother to gun violence

  • Walker’s personal history shaped her opinions on criminal justice policy

“He was ultimately shot, I believe, nine times,” she added. “Either seven or nine times in the torso. And he ultimately ran from the 10 Amboy building into another building that was right behind called 1400 where he, I want to say succumbed to his wounds, but he didn’t die at that point, but I did hear stories that he had passed out.”

Mark was taken to Brookdale hospital and died in the hallway before ever reaching the operating room. He left behind 11-month old twins. Then came the hard part for the family, which was learning to cope.

“The person who murdered him lived across the street from us," Walker said. "And he was no stranger to my brother. So, they were all friends. And his brother knocked on my door the next day, the guy who shot my brother was named Wayne. He knocked on our door the next day and he let our family know that he had turned Wayne in to the 73rd precinct."
 
For years after, Walker says the two families continued to live nearby one another, and remained linked together through mutual friends and family.

“We have to feel that pain and that anger but still be forced to forgive," she said. "Even in a situation where most people will think is unforgivable. But we have to do it because we have to survive and we can’t just go on living in these feuds."

About 15 years later, Wayne was released from prison. And Walker saw him for the first time since the shooting at a local park during a Fathers Day celebration.

“And as I’m looking, it dawned on me that this was the guy who shot Mark,” she said. “And so he looked at me and he says, ‘What? You don’t want nothing with me. You don’t want nothing with me.’ And all I could say is ‘I was a little girl when this happened. And I’m an attorney now, I work for a member of Congress and this isn’t the interaction that I need or want.’”

Walker said it was this experience that taught her that while punishment should fit the crime, mass incarceration is not the answer either. And she wants to see the system improved to keep families together.

“We can have public safety within our communities, but at the same time we can also enjoy their right size constitutional protections that any other American has,” she said.

Attempts made by Mayor Adams to roll back the elimination of cash bail and other reforms have been rebuffed by state lawmakers.