Atlanta Police Major Keith Meadows, recently appointed as the new commander for Zone 6, wants to meet directly with members of the LGBT community living in Zone 6 and listen to their concerns.

The informal gathering is set for Saturday, April 7, from 6-7 p.m. at Kirkwood United Church of Christ, 2033 Hosea L. Williams Drive.

“The department’s mission is to reduce crime and promote the quality of life in partnership with our communities,” Meadows said in a press statement. “The LGBT community is an important part of Zone 6, and I welcome the opportunity to work together with them to reduce crime.”

Zone 6 includes heavily gay neighborhoods including East Atlanta, Kirkwood, Inman Park, Candler Park, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland.

Meadows joined the APD in 1986 and was Commander of Major Crimes section before taking over as Commander of Zone 6 on Feb. 16. The former Zone 6 commander, Major John Dalton, was promoted to deputy chief.

While with Major Crimes, Meadows talked to the GA Voice in 2010 about the murders of three men involved with the LGBT community.

Durand Robinson of Traxx Atlanta, the gay party promotion business, was gunned down in the middle of Hadlock Street in southwest Atlanta on Aug. 25,  2010, a week before one of the biggest weekends of the year for Traxx — Atlanta’s Black Gay Pride.

Eleven days later, on Sept. 5, two men — Samuel Blizzard, 21, a Georgia State University student from Spring Cove, Va., and Calvin Streater, 26, of Atlanta — were found shot to death in a Richmond Circle apartment in southeast Atlanta after police said they had attended Black Gay Pride events.

These crimes remain unsolved.