LEWISTON — Officials say youth gun violence in Lewiston is a problem. The city council held a meeting on Tuesday  to discuss solutions. 

According to the Lewiston Police Department, there have been 19 shootings in 2026 so far. Twelve of those involved children under 18. In May, Lewiston police arrested five children between the ages of 14 and 16 for conspiracy for murder. 

Nobody had an answer on Tuesday for why Lewiston seems overrepresented in youth gun violence. Many offered a variety of solutions, from more funding for after-school programs to Councilor Susan Longchamps calling for Gov. Janet Mills to deploy the Maine National Guard to the city. 

“It is our responsibility to help. We are eleven officers down, by golly, and we need some sort of help,” Longchamps said. 

Both Police Chief Carly Conley and District Three District Attorney Neil McLean said their departments are extremely understaffed. Both called for increased accountability for children who are arrested. McLean specifically said many children who go through the court system are found “incompetent” to stand trial, and their cases are therefore dismissed. He argued that many of these children are competent to stand trial and should face consequences for their actions such as incarceration.  

“They’re not children. They’re juveniles. We should call them what they are,” McLean said. “When you call them children, or kiddos, which I see way too often, you’re minimizing what they’re doing.” 

But others argued for more community resources and community involvement to prevent children from being involved in gun violence and other crimes.  

Chris Bicknell, the executive director of New Beginnings, a nonprofit that serves runaway and homeless youth, said the problem of youth gun violence is a public health crisis. He said without significant financial investment into nonprofits and programs to help children, the problem won’t be fixed. 

Dunkins Pierre, a restorative justice manager for the Restorative Justice Project Maine, said the children involved in criminal acts don’t lack accountability — they lack support. Pierre said he works directly with children in Lewiston. 

“We could wait for the money, we could wait for the legislature, that’s going to take time,” Pierre said. “But as of right now, what you can do tomorrow, we can go out in the street and talk to some kids.” 

Lewiston Superintendent Jake Langlais said students have told him that they get guns from cars that don’t have their firearms secured and that they carry weapons because they don’t feel safe. 

“Imagine if everywhere we went in our community, we said to each other, ‘How are the kids doing?’” Langlais said. “Because if they’re not OK, we have a lot of work to do. If they are OK, we have to maintain that.” 

The council did not take any action.