In an emergency meeting convened to address the latest flare-up of violence in Bowdoin Geneva, the biggest thing attendees could agree on was that this was a long-time coming.

“We're here to have a conversation we should have had 20 years ago" Paulo De Barros, director of St. Peter's Teen Center, told the group of more than 200 community members, stakeholders, and leaders gathered in the auditorium of St. Peter’s Teen Center on Bowdoin Street.

Up Bowdoin Street four days earlier, a seven year old boy was hit by a stray bullet while riding his bike to a corner store for water. Divan Silva of Brockton has been recovering from the non-life threatening injury at Boston Children’s Hospital. Silva’s aunt and grandmother attended the meeting.

Thursday’s meeting, De Barros said, was meant to bring people together. “The residents came together because we feel we need to do this together." And so they gathered, alongside local leaders including Mayor Martin Walsh, Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans, Boston Police Chief William Gross, Inspectional Services Department Commissioner Buddy Christopher, Department of Neighborhood Development Chief Sheila Dillon, members of the local clergy, civic association leaders, and elected officials including City Councillors Frank Baker, Charles Yancey, and Ayanna Pressley, and State Senators Linda Dorcena Forry and Sonia Chang-Diaz.

One benefit of the community uniting, Evans said, is to “show the neighborhood won’t tolerate this kind of violence.” City officials have expressed concern over a lack of information related to the shooting, which took place just before 5 p.m. at an active street corner on Sunday. Evans said the police have only received “one or two tips” related to the car identified by police, adding “we need more.”

“We can't let acts like this go unnoticed and it's great to see the community come out and say ‘we're not going to take this,’” Evans said

The first half of the meeting was closed to the press as attendees shared stories about their struggles with police response after shootings and raised questions and concerns about community policing, a source inside the room told the Reporter.

When the press returned, Judy Meredith of the Bowdoin Geneva Residents Association began to press Walsh about specific action plans for the neighborhood. Walsh said a plan would be coming from the city next week that will detail ways to address issues in the neighborhood. Michael Groves, of the Bowdoin Geneva Residents Association, asked that the city create a multi-pronged and multi-tiered task force to address the neighborhood’s systemic issues in Bowdoin Geneva.

Walsh also said a main reason for many of the issues in the area was lack of opportunities for young people, which became a sticking point as Walsh touted higher numbers for the city’s youth jobs program.

After the meeting, Yancey told the Reporter that the Marshall Community Center “easy to re-open and should be done immediately” to give opportunities to young people in the area.

Indeed, many there wanted to hear the next steps in the community’s healing process–beyond a community meeting that many say they have seen before in other circumstances.

Baker said he “would have liked to see more action items come out of the meeting” and that he is hopeful about what can come next. “I think there was a lot of good in this,” Baker told the Reporter.

Police are looking for a teenager in connection with the shootings, which also saw the wounding of a 20-year-old man at the scene. They say witnesses described the shooter as a heavy-set male of about 5 foot 8, aged 14 to 18 and wearing a red hoodie, white shorts, and white sneakers.

Police ask anyone with information related to the incident to call Dorchester district detectives at 617-343-4335. Anonymous tips can be left at the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting the word TIP to 27463.