Mayor refuses to fire pistol to start road race

CINCINNATI (AP) — Mayor Mark Mallory is refusing to fire a starter pistol to kick off an upcoming road race, saying he doesn’t like the gun’s symbolism in a city that set a record for homicides last year.

Mallory said he’ll blow a whistle at Saturday’s Rhythm Race 5K instead. A pistol filled with blanks is traditionally used to start races and track meets.

“I think the symbolism is just bad,” he said. “It’s just something I don’t do.”

Mallory made the comment Tuesday while condemning last weekend’s fatal shooting of a man near a youth football tournament held to promote nonviolence in Cincinnati neighborhoods.

Earnest Crear, 19, was in a group of young adults when he was shot just outside the field where hundreds of community members were watching children ages 6-12 play games in the “Peace Bowl.” Police on Thursday arrested Dante Allen, 19, a Cincinnati man named in a murder arrest warrant.

Organizers of the Rhythm Race 5K, which raises money for neighborhood redevelopment projects, said they’re fine with Mallory’s decision.

“We’re just happy to have the mayor,” said Elizabeth Sherwood, president of the College Hill Forum, a neighborhood group. “I don’t care if he wants to bang pots and pans together.”

Cincinnati had 89 homicides last year, seven more than anytime since city police began keeping consistent records in 1950.