News 12 at 11 o'clock / Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012

AIKEN, S.C. -- American flags lined the sign in front of Aiken's Public Safety building while community members lined Eustis Park just a few blocks away on Sunday evening.

Some residents say it was a scene you would never have seen in Aiken years ago.

"I moved to Aiken eight years ago," Meghan Kehoe said. "There wasn't crime like this in Aiken eight years ago."

Now, after public safety officers Scott Richardson and Sandy Rogers were shot and killed, the flags and congregations of people are scenes the city is familiar with.

"It's just hard," Kehoe said. "The community needs to come together and get the crime out of Aiken."

That's exactly why Shakara Elam helped organize a "Stop the Violence" rally at Eustis Park.

"We want our community back. We want peace in Aiken on all sides, on all walks of life," Elam said.

She and a group of peers, all young people, put the rally together for Rogers and her family.

"We can't sit back and say that this is wrong and not do anything about it anymore," she explained. "The time is now for us to act."

That action involved multiple prayers, and after those prayers, they put flowers on the ground and lit candles for Rogers. Then, public safety officers walked Rogers' father up to the candles where he stood over them for a few moments in silence.

He's an older man and is exactly the type of man Elam and her group of young people want to stop the violence for.

"We grew up knowing and living all the things our elders told us about this community," she said. "The least we can do for them is make sure this community is safe for them as we're taking over everything now."