“They’ve got more weapons than we do,” Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins told the Board of Aldermen Tuesday about recent gang activity in the city. “They’re walking around with awesome firepower, age 10 and up.”

Though officers have been working around the clock to an investigation into the Sept. 13 shooting death of Mashonna Dunnigan, progress is difficult because people are afraid to talk, Collins said.

“We’ve been working on this, but the public doesn’t want to talk. We have some suspects,” he said. “We haven’t had much sleep. We’ve all been working on it. We’ve upped patrols and we’re working on gang identification.”

Someone saw what happened, knows what happened, and needs to say something in order to get violent criminals off the streets, Collins said.

“We’re doing our best to keep Brookhaven safe. If we all work together, I think we’ll be alright.”