Last Friday evening, Grace Richardson stood on an Ashmont Street sidewalk next to pictures of her son, Christopher Levon Austin, Jr., arranged on a poster board that read, “We love you Christopher.” A bouquet of flowers and three tall votive candles lay in front of the makeshift memorial at 96 Ashmont Street—the area where Austin, 20, was shot about 10 a.m. on June 28. He later died. Two men have been arrested and are being held without bail for his murder.

“We’re going to more funerals than older people go to,” Richardson told a growing crowd of neighbors, friends and extended family members from Dorchester and surrounding neighborhoods.

More than 50 people joined Richardson and her daughter, Sata, who organized the vigil, to offer condolences, to listen, to vent, to speak and troubleshoot solutions to keep the violence—especially on Ashmont Street—from happening again.

Richardson recounted in a telephone interview after the vigil there were two other shootings that occurred on Ashmont Street.

“Neighbors are concerned,” she said.

While the gathering spilled into the street, four Boston police officers, some on bikes, stood by across the street.

Richardson’s overriding purpose for the vigil was to bring neighbors—some of whom were unaware of her son’s shooting—together, to give people a chance to offer condolences, and to organize.

“We cannot do it by ourselves, ” she said.

Sata Richardson has established a Go Fund Me page to help pay for burial costs for her brother, said her mother; the family is asking for $10,000 and has about $3,000, said Grace Richardson.

People took turns expressing concern and suggesting solutions, such as getting a camera on the street to mitigate crime. One man said men should just get out and start patrolling the street.

About 20 people signed up to meet again and be part of a larger effort to organize the disparate neighborhood associations and pool efforts to keep the streets safer.

“We have to start taking control of our streets,” said Charles Clemons Muhammad, who is running for city councillor in District 7. “The question is how bad do we want it?”

“I don’t even want to hear violence is down while shooting is up,” said Boston City Councillor Tito Jackson, who is challenging Mayor Martin J. Walsh in this year’s mayoral election. “This is tragic and we have a huge increase in shootings in Boston,” he said, “and we have not put forward a comprehensive plan to interrupt the violence. If we do nothing, it will continue.”

Ramona Jones, who lives in Jamaica Plain, lost a son to gun violence in 2002. She offered her condolences to Richardson. “It takes a minute to kill someone, but it takes a lifetime to deal with it,” she said.

Domingo DaRosa, who attended the vigil, expressed the need to stay vigilant. “We all come out when something like this happens and, in a week, we are back to normal.”

DaRosa, who owns a small construction company, admitted to getting into trouble as a youth. He credits a parole officer who helped him stay positive and interested in life, such as organized football, with putting his life on track.

Richardson said days after the vigil that neighbors are already planning to meet to keep addressing the issue.

“I’m very happy about that,” she said. “I just take every day as it comes—I can support that.”

Police described Austin’s as a “brazen daylight shooting.” Keith Cousins, 30, of Boston, was arrested in Marietta, Ga. on July 14. Shaquille Brown, 22, of Mattapan, has also been charged in Austin’s shooting.

Prosecutors say that Cousins drove a vehicle that followed Austin as he walked down Ashmont Street and that Brown accosted him on the street and shot him. The motive for the homicide remains under investigation. The two men are due back in court on Aug. 19.