SOUTH BEND — One by one, they all came back to the park. Mothers with babies in strollers, children playing in the water park and on the swings, boys playing basketball and picnics were openly visible again Sunday at Southeast Park — about 24 hours after a fatal shooting that followed a reunion there.

“This is a nice park and I bring my kids here to play all the time,” said Felicia Buggs, who lives in the neighborhood. “It’s just silly how black people keep killing each other but when you come to a crowded park where there are old people and children and start shooting people, then you’ve gone too far. Everyone should just put the guns down and try to get along because it is not that serious.”

The only physical sign of the shooting that took place around 6 p.m. Saturday was the yellow police tape stuffed in the trash can and bright orange paint-sprayed circles with numbers inside around the area where the shooting took place.

Two men were shot following the ninth annual Southeast Side Reunion at Southeast Park, leaving one dead and the other injured.

But the neighbors of the park, known for the newly built water park, kids' swings and basketball court, came together Sunday to take the park back.

It was unclear if the victims had been at the reunion since it was over at the time of the shooting, but Annie Marsh and her husband were there the entire time.

“It was a wonderful celebration and I had just told my husband it was so nice I could take a nap,” Marsh said as she walked alone around the park picking up trash left from the reunion. “I know the people who organized this event are really hurting because they would be out here helping me but they just couldn’t take it.

"I hate so badly this terrible thing happened the first time they had it here on the southeast side. I just wonder why people have to go out and shoot each other,” she said.

“When I was growing up if I had a fight with someone, it was over the next day but today there is no such thing as a fair fight. It’s time to put these guns away and start handling problems in a different way — this is not working.”

“The shooting happened about 6 p.m. or so as the reunion was ended,” said Kenny Black, who lives in the neighborhood and was at the reunion.

“I remember the DJ telling everyone it was over when I hear about six pop, pop, and people started running. They were running so that my daughter ... fell and I had to grab her before she was trapped. There were hundreds of people running and screaming; it was crazy. But my kids love this park and we are not about to let some fool make us lose it. That’s why we’re back today.”

Monday, police announced they arrested Gary Stokes, 57, of South Bend in connection with the shooting.

A condition report on the surviving victim was not available.