Community raises money for gas station to join Project Green Light

DETROIT (WJBK) - Cameras for Project Green Light in Detroit have captured crystal clear video helping to put criminals behind bars.

But the technology isn't free or cheap - that's why some pastors are help a local  gas station owner afford it.

"I've seen arguing, I've seen shootings," said Angel Alexander. "I've seen all types of stuff."

"There a whole bunch of kids around, and that shooting - people need to stop doing that," said 6-year-old Taylor.

And it seems to happen with some regularity at the corner of Wyoming and Grand River in Detroit. In early March the gas station at the corner was the scene of a fatal shooting, later ruled self-defense.

But some stay that was the last straw.

"Shootings,  robberies, people in the communities complaining to us. It has been going on for quite a while," said Rev Horace Sheffield III, Executive Director Detroit Association of Black Organizations

With about 40 percent of homes the neighborhood vacant and blighted. No one is blaming the gas station for the crime that happens around there.

"If it's unsafe for customers. It’s unsafe for people who work there," Sheffield said.

But they do say something can -  and should - be done to help stop it.

"It just got to the point where we felt we needed to intervene," he said.

On Tuesday, members of the community got together with the owner of the gas station and police, pushing for Project Green Light.

"With lights and cameras, nobody is going to do nothing around here," said Cierra Nimocks.

The project allows police to tap into cameras and monitor what goes on. But it has to be city-approved cameras and lights all of which costs $5,000 up front.

So Sheffield and the Detroit Association of Black Organizations made it easier to say yes.

"We made them an offer that basically they couldn't refuse," he said.

They offered to pay half the cost to get the program up and running and at Tuesday's meeting the station agreed.

As for where the rest of that $2,500 is coming from, Sheffield says think about it like this, a charitable donation from a neighbor.

A safer gas station is good for everyone involved.