Cape Coral’s mayor says city is safe amid apparent wave of violent crime

Violence in Southwest Florida’s largest city, Cape Coral, is on the rise and the city’s mayor wants to ensure people know the city is safe.

Over the weekend, there was a shooting at a Wawa off Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard in Cape Coral. Since Memorial Day, there has been a deadly officer-involved shooting, a deadly shooting, and the arrest of two boys accused of stealing guns.

All this violence in Cape Coral took place in the last two weeks.

“That’s shocking. Cause you wouldn’t feel when you’re in the community you look around the community you wouldn’t feel like it’s here,” said Thomas Mitchell of Cape Coral.

After the shooting at Wawa Sunday, people took to Facebook, calling the city the wild west, saying the place is getting famous for shootings.

One person commented, “This is not the Cape Coral it once was.”

WINK News brought those comments to Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter and asked him if he was concerned that people would see these things and decide against moving to the city.

“I think the couple instances you mentioned here today have been, you know, in the news the last two weeks. But overall, I think we still are a very, very safe city. Can I say we never have instances that we prefer not to have happen? Absolutely not. But we have to make sure we stay proactive when it comes to our crime,” said Gunter.

That includes adding 50 new police officers to the Cape Coral Police Department as part of the chief’s five-year plan to keep up with the city’s growth and help address the needs of the police department.

“I have the utmost confidence in our police department that that level of service and that quality of protection will stay the same as it has in the past,” said Gunter.