LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two drive-by shootings in the past week have concerned people across the community, so 8 News Now spoke with a community advocate about current efforts to keep others safe. 

“This is a peaceful neighborhood,” Duane Whitaker said of a shooting in his Centennial Hills neighborhood. “So, this is crazy.”

“Scary, I didn’t know what happened,” Juan, an Ed Von Tobel Middle School student said of a shooting outside the grounds. “We went into a closet and stayed there.”

Two shootings have people in both areas shaken. A campus monitor was hit by a stray bullet outside Von Tobel Middle School in the northeast valley, then a day later, two children were shot in a normally quiet neighborhood near Durango Drive and Elkhorn Road. 

“This is just violence that shouldn’t have happened,” Whitaker said of the second incident. 

“Ba da da da da da da,” Parie Wilson recalled the sound of gunshots in her neighborhood. “And I come out and they are like slumped over.”

Jessie Rios, 18, was arrested in connection with the first shooting, and sources told our 8 News Now Investigators both situations are gang-related. 

“It is a community problem,” Pastor Troy Martinez said. “And the community has to be a solution.”

Martinez is the founder of Dads in Schools, a volunteer organization that promotes school safety. He told 8 News Now this is an issue that needs to be addressed. 

Statistics from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police show 21% of murders so far in 2023 involved a gang member. 

Pastor Maritnez’s plan is more presence and interference early on in local schools. 

“Our job from the community,” he explained. “Is to stop gangs from recruiting in our elementary, middle, and high schools.”

This comes as those directly affected said they are still trying to wrap their head around what happened. 

“We don’t get disturbances and that kind of activity over here,” Wilson said of Centennial Hills. 

“I was scared,” Eric Arizoa told 8 News Now of the shooting outside his middle school Monday. 

Many said they now have a new take on staying safe here at home. 

“It’s got me shaken up a little bit,” Wilson concluded. 

There was also a car in the neighborhood near Durango Drive and Elkhorn Road with multiple bullet holes. 

Neighbors told 8 News Now the two children who were hit were near the car when it happened. 

Police are still searching for a suspect in the second incident. 

For more information on Dads in Schools, click here.