Lamar Wilson, one of the men who allegedly participated in the Ped Mall shooting, had criminal gang affiliation added to his list of charges on Oct. 11.

Iowa City got pretty flustered the weekend of Aug. 27 when bullets went flying on the Pedestrian Mall in the early morning. When the shooting took place, I was working dispatch for Nite Ride at student security, so I heard a lot of frightened phone calls from 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Students running around like chickens with their heads cut off, or following officers, doesn’t help when police are trying to control the situation.

After looking at the arrest affidavits, I assumed the shootout was an act of gang violence. As soon as I said that, I was immediately sent on a reversal, because in all news outlets, the Iowa City police refused to confirm that the incident was gang-related.

Going back over the affidavits, one will find that police avoided calling it a gang shooting, instead saying such things as, “[Wilson] fired several rounds at subjects over an ongoing feud.” I found myself asking why was it so hard to label this shooting a “gang” shooting.

RELATED: Gang participation added to charges against suspect in ped mall shooting

I understand that this situation was an open investigation and that officers were still looking in on the case before coming to the final verdict, and as Iowa City police public-information officer Sgt. Scott Gaarde, said, “Over the course of the ongoing investigation, information was determined that fit the necessary criteria to satisfy the requirements of the State of Iowa Criminal Gang Participation statute.”

Where I’m from, when faced with similar circumstances and evidence, there would be no need to prove that the groups involved were gangs. People would immediately assume that the men in the shooting were a part of a gang and that the incident was a case of gang violence.

Here, however, the immediate reaction was to call the groups anything but a gang, calling the the men things such as “loosely affiliated groups” and the situation a “feud.” In my hometown, things would almost be the opposite where people would treat the event as a gang shootout until proven otherwise.

Common belief is that gangs and gang violence are restricted to bigger cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and New York, so when it happens here, it causes a huge panic. Just think back to Aug. 27. When the shooting happened, the whole town was suddenly shut down as police tried to contain the situation.

I believe the root of the problem lies with the fact that smaller cities, like Iowa City, simply don’t imagine the potential of gangs arising in them. When gangs and guns assail the city as they would in Chicago, it’s almost unbelievable.

But as Iowa City has now proven — gang violence has a potential to arise anywhere, and by acknowledging that, there is a possibility to better prepare people for if and when such activity takes place.