Outreach program calls for peace after violent weekend around Fayetteville

A local outreach program is speaking out Sunday night after a violent weekend around Fayetteville.

Kandi Hoskins still has memories of her brother, Antwain, playing drums. Hoskins said it was her brother’s passion.

“Antwain played drums his whole life, from birth until his passing,” she said. “Actually, the Sunday he passed away, he played for my brother, who is a pastor now.”

Those dreams ended when Antwain was killed during a shooting at a hookah lounge in 2022. Hoskins said the shooting at a hookah lounge on Saturday morning stirred up several emotions for her and her mother.

“This is the second time this has happened at that particular lounge,” Hoskins said. “My heart drops.”

Three people were killed in three separate shootings since Friday around the Fayetteville area. On Friday, a man was killed and another was hospitalized in a shooting on Smith Road near Fayetteville.

Then on Saturday morning, two men were shot at a Anubis hookah lounge in Fayetteville. One of the victims, Elijah Wyand, died from his injuries at the hospital. Finally on Saturday evening, two more men were shot, this time on Edgehill Road. One of the victims died at the hospital, but the other is expected to survive.

Three months prior to Saturday morning’s shooting at Anubis, three men were hospitalized in a shooting at the same hookah lounge.

Hoskins and her family now uses her brothers dream to inspire others to put down the guns and pick up the music.

After her brother’s death, Hoskins started “Drumzup and Gunzdown,” a community outreach program that hands out drumsticks to children, teaching them how to play the drums.

Hoskins says she does it to show people there is another answer.

“Getting drumsticks, we mail them out to them [or] drop them off to them,” Hoskins said. “It doesn’t matter as long as they get a pair of drumsticks in there hands and they’re aboslutely loving it.”

Drumzup and Gunzdown will have a public session on October 5 to teach children and teens how to play drums. Authorities are still investigating all three shootings and there are no suspects in custody.