CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The face of 25-year-old Demetrius Montgomery became familiar to many last week when he was charged with murder in the deaths of two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers.

Officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton, both officers in the North Tryon Division, were shot from behind at the Timber Ridge Apartments in east Charlotte late March 31.

Montgomery was arrested a short time later, but many officers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department already knew the man. Montgomery had been arrested by 10 officers over the last nine years on charges including assault and resisting a public officer.

One Charlotte man says the case is an example of a larger problem affecting many children in the black community, and he's gathering others to make efforts to reverse the trend and get help to the children who need it.

"No one wants to admit the problem is as severe as it is," said community activist Ahmad Daniels.

Daniels had already planned a town hall meeting for Thursday night to talk about what he calls "the crisis of young African American males in Charlotte" before the officers were killed. But now he says the town hall meeting has even more importance.

"That will be in the minds of people for a long, long time," he said.

Daniels says the officers' deaths have opened the community's eyes to the crisis, but it isn't new. He points to numbers from a 2003 national group study that shows young, black Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students are more likely to be expelled or suspended from school than their white counterparts.

The statistics show black boys outnumbered white boys in total expulsions by 30 to 5, and 5,525 black males were given out-of-school suspensions, while only 1,970 white males faced the same disciplinary action.

Daniels says the community needs to reach out to Charlotte's youth but the first step is admitting there is a problem.

"Talking doesn't solve all the problems, but no problems can be solved unless there's first some talking," he said.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph welcomes the discussion. He says he's seeing offenders start at a younger age than ever before, and he believe the problems start in the environment where some children are raised.

"When our deputies see children in environments that we see they are going to become future criminals, they need to be removed from that situation," he said.

Pendergraph released numbers on Thursday that show a majority of the jail population is made up of black men.

Daniels hopes he and others can come up with solutions.

"We have to exercise some kind of commitment and discipline so we can shape the environment we want so we can leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than what we found it," he said.