Latron Chrome Louis, remembers being just nine years old when his childhood changed forever. He, his brother, and his cousin were caught in the middle of a shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a normal childhood for me until I realized I was living in extreme poverty,\u201d he said.Louis grew up surrounded by violence \u2014 an experience shared by many in North Omaha. Now, a new state-funded study confirms what residents have long felt: the impact of trauma runs deep. Nearly 20% of people surveyed showed clinical signs of PTSD, and among youth, that number climbs to one in four.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself, I went through childhood trauma\u2026 then I went into self-inflicted trauma because of my childhood,\u201d Louis said.Today, Louis leads Code Z, an organization focused on gang intervention and violence prevention \u2014 work he says is crucial to breaking the cycle.<\/p>\n
Former State Senator Justin Wayne, who secured $500,000 in state funding for the study, says the data shows the community is facing trauma comparable to war conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids in North Omaha \u2014 they hear gunshots, they see dead bodies, they witness or are part of violence\u2026 then they have to get up and go to school the next day,\u201d Wayne said.\u201cThe study shows that parts of our neighborhoods are no different than a battle zone.\u201dResearchers found 25% of participants had been shot or shot at, nearly 30% witnessed someone being shot, and two-thirds regularly heard gunfire outside their homes.<\/p>\n
Dr. William \u201cBill\u201d Reay, who led the study, says these conditions force families to live in persistent danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Omaha \u2014 folks don\u2019t leave. They have to stay in those violent circumstances,\u201d Reay said.The trauma isn\u2019t only tied to gun violence. The report also revealed 22% of respondents experienced rape or molestation, and nearly half of them met the threshold for PTSD.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome events \u2014 tragic, violent events \u2014 can trigger intense emotional reactions,\u201d Reay explained. \u201cChildren don\u2019t have that experience yet, so they aren\u2019t adapting as well\u2026 and parents become desensitized to that environment.\u201dResearchers say that untreated trauma often transfers between generations \u2014 impacting how families respond to stress, safety, and community violence.<\/p>\n
Louis says the fight for healing is far from over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want help more than ever\u2026 but you lose hope after you\u2019ve been in the water for so long, just trying to stay afloat.\u201dWayne hopes the findings will serve as a blueprint for new policies and long-term healing in North Omaha.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latron Chrome Louis, remembers being just nine years old when his childhood changed forever. He, his brother, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394,111713],"class_list":{"0":"post-236270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-omaha-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}