The city is set to hire an executive director for its newly created Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Mayor Christopher Scanlon’s administration told The News that Adrienne Garr, currently a social worker with the violence prevention nonprofit Buffalo SNUG, will take the leadership role in the office at the beginning of October.
The administration and search committee interviewed 23 candidates and narrowed the field to six people before ultimately choosing Garr. The office was created to act as a conduit between Buffalo Police and violence prevention groups throughout the city with the goal of centralizing their efforts and creating more collaboration between the groups to share ideas, best practices and resources.
Scanlon said he sat in on the final interview with Garr and was impressed with her knowledge of the violence prevention landscape in the city.
“The thing that really resonated with me was her reference to the different partnerships she thinks she’s going to be able to establish through relationships she has now and other endeavors that she’s embarked on through her current and past positions,” Scanlon said.
The office was created as one of the final acts in former Mayor Byron Brown’s 19-year tenure, established through an executive order from Brown’s office in October.
Garr comes into office during a steep decrease in gun violence. After significant increases in shootings and homicides in 2021 and 2022, mirroring national trends, those figures have dropped below pre-pandemic levels, which were already the lowest totals in decades.
Buffalo police announced last week that year-to-date statistics show a 45% decrease in homicides and a 35% drop in shooting victims from 2024 to 2025.
Masten District Council Member Zeneta Everhart, who has made gun violence prevention a focus of her agenda since taking office at the beginning of 2024, was instrumental in establishing the office and was a member of the search committee that selected Garr.
Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was shot and wounded in the racist mass shooting at the Jefferson Avenue Tops in May of 2022 where 10 Black people were killed, said that shortly after Garr begins in the office they will present a 10-point plan she and others at the city have developed to bring together the many violence prevention groups working to make Buffalo safer.
“Bringing this office online right now is the perfect time, because now we can really double down on the work that’s already being done,” Everhart said.
Everhart had been working with members of former President Joe Biden’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention when the city office was established last year and had plans to lean on their expertise and pursue grants offered by that office. President Donald Trump dissolved the office after coming back into the office at the beginning of the year.
Everhart said that while she is disappointed that the White House disbanded the federal office, she is still in frequent conversations with the former members, including Gregory Jackson Jr., a former adviser with the office.
“We’re still having those conversations as if there is a gun violence prevention office at the White House,” she said.
Everhart said that while the selection process took nearly a year she is very happy with the result, with the search committee taking its time to thoroughly sift through candidates. She said out of the process they were able to hire an excellent candidate who she is excited to begin working with next month.
“This is a person who has worked in gun violence prevention spaces for many years,” she said.
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