--- title: An End to the Bleeding date: 2023-06-07T05:30:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/an-end-to-the-bleeding" section: Articles --- # An End to the Bleeding *June 7, 2023* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10) > UMD Researchers Partner With Knoxville, Tenn., on Data-Driven Approach to Reducing Gun Violence *Web ft abt 1920x1080x 1 — Relatives and friends of Knoxville, Tenn., teenager Nana Muhammad gathered together in February to mark two years since her death in a drive-by shooting. After reading "Bleeding Out" by Thomas Abt, the mayor of Knoxville reached out to the UMD associate research professor to work together on a new set of protocols and practices for the city intended to prevent gun violence.* **ONE EVENING IN FEBRUARY 2021,** Janaria Muhammad stepped out of her house in Knoxville, Tenn., to meet friends at her favorite restaurant, Kings and Wings. Recently turned 15, Nana, as everyone called her, was a perpetual source of energy for those around her. She reminded her brothers to keep their grades up, helped her dad navigate new technology so much that he teased she was his secretary, shimmied with the dance team at Austin-East High School, and babysat neighborhood kids and cut hair for pocket money. “She was like the sun,” her father, Lawrence Muhammad, told The Washington Post. “When you saw her, you lit up.” That night, Nana didn’t make it past her yard on Selma Avenue before the darkness got her: She was hit twice by a drive-by shooter. Her father rushed outside and held her as she died—the third of five Austin-East students lost to gun violence before the end of spring. To mark the second anniversary of Nana’s murder, dozens gathered outside the squat brick building that houses East Knoxville’s YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center, where she regularly came after school to do homework, play basketball and snap pictures with friends. Friends and relatives, along with community members and leaders, clutched purple balloons—the color she’d chosen for her bedroom—under a gray, oatmeal-textured sky. Her parents spoke to news cameras, pleading again for help finding her still-unidentified killer. “If we don’t get justice in this life, we know that we will get justice in the next,” said Jacquelinne Muhammad, Nana’s mother. *"Bleeding Out" book cover* --- **KNOXVILLE POLICE OFFICER** Conner Wiesenberg has the kind of “how’s your dad doing?” familiarity with neighborhood regulars that Abt prizes, because it opens doors for peaceful solutions to problems that could escalate to bullets flying. He graduated from Knoxville Central High, and played on its basketball team with kids from Lonsdale, a neighborhood that experienced violence then, too. “It would not be uncommon for us to be on a traffic stop and somebody rolls by, calls my name out, it’s somebody that I know,” he says. *police officers look at blue writing on sidewalk — Knoxville police officers Andrell Cummings (left) and Conner Wiesenberg look at a memorial to a resident killed last year.* *Thomas Abt gives lecture — The police department in Knoxville is incorporating violence reduction methods presented by UMD’s Thomas Abt (above). (Photo by Elliott Lee Masouredis)* --- **BORN AND RAISED** in Cambridge, Mass., Abt was exposed early to the idea of using data to address social problems by his father, Clark Abt, an MIT-trained researcher whose social science think tank, Abt Associates, takes on issues like public health, education and economic mobility. Abt’s interest in violence reduction was fueled by his own close-to-home shock. In 1999, while attending Georgetown University Law Center, he taught a class at a local high school. One student “sat in the back, was extremely disconnected, often slept through major portions of class,” he recalls. Gradually, as Abt worked to engage him, he became more responsive. One of Abt’s mentees from the program later asked if he’d heard about the kid in the back of the class: He’d been murdered. Years later, as he began writing “Bleeding Out,” Abt searched unsuccessfully for details. “I contacted the homeroom teacher. He was like, ‘Thomas, I can’t tell you how many students I’ve lost. There’s just no way I could possibly pick this one out among all the others.’” Abt went on to examine this problem of violence from the perspective of a teacher, a prosecutor, a government official and an academic. After law school, he worked as an assistant district attorney in New York County, followed by time at a law firm and as voter program director for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign. Post-election, Abt joined the Department of Justice as chief of staff to Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson, who prioritized “bringing sound science and reliable data into the criminal justice decision-making process,” he says. *back of Knoxville police officer* --- **DOWN SECLUDED** Adcock Avenue in Knoxville, Wiesenberg points out a low-slung house where he used to drop off basketball buddies after school. In April 2020, Anthony Sanford, one of them, was killed here, shot in the back in what appeared to start as a drug deal. Later that night, Wiesenberg, an officer on the Community Engagement Response Team (CERT), got a call saying that neighbors and witnesses were stonewalling investigators, but that “there are some people up here that are name-dropping you.” Wiesenberg went to the house alone and gleaned information that eventually led to the arrest of a suspect. That kind of relationship is essential to CERT, a unit that focuses exclusively on violent crimes with the kind of community-first policing Abt encourages. Each night, CERT officers walk through neighborhoods, asking residents how things are going. An anonymous tip line also lets citizens text officers. *Denzel Grant leads Turn Up Knox — Denzel Grant leads Turn Up Knox, a program to keep kids and adults from violence. Such organizations are critical to reducing violence, says Abt.* --- ## UMD Researchers Lead 120 Initiative on Gun Violence Reduction *Joseph Richardson Jr. headshot* *Rod K. Brunson headshot* **Sidebar note:** This story is featured on the cover of the Spring 2023 issue of *Terp* magazine. Find all the stories online at [terp.umd.edu](https://terp.umd.edu/). **Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research) **Tags:** [Criminology and Criminal Justice](https://today.umd.edu/topic/criminology-and-criminal-justice), [Gun Violence Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/gun-violence-research), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research) **Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences)