UPDATE: A 16 year old was shot last night in the 300 block of West Camel Street. Luckily, he only suffered a gun shot wound in his arm. Police reported the shot came from an apartment complex. West Camel is less than a mile from several other recent shootings. It would fit perfectly in the red triangle area.
Gunshots. During the Fox 8 WGHP lead story at six I heard gunshots. While Myers was interviewing a Rosewood Neighborhood resident, distant gun shots were fired by an unknown person. A 911 call came into Guilford Metro 911 soon after the shots rang out and officers were dispatched. Thankfully, no one was injured. Police have not named any suspects in this case.
The shots the residents heard were nothing unusual. Fox 8 Reporter, Caron Myers, was there to continue coverage of the nasty exchange of gunfire between three Greensboro Police Officers and three young men that place less than 24 hours earlier.
Late Monday night, Guilford Metro received a call from Mayfair Avenue reporting a woman was being robbed and forced into a residence. The caller identified the suspects as armed and the woman appeared to be in great danger.
Three police officers arrived on the scene and were met with gunfire. The suspects left the girl and the residence and fled the scene in a black Cadillac. The car chase became a foot chase and two of the three suspects were busted near Gillespie Street on East Market. The third suspect was not captured. Police reported the investigation is ongoing.
During Chief Tim Bellamy's press conference he reported that two brothers, 19 and 16 year old Fletcher and Adam Marshall shot at the officers as they drove away from where they were holding a female captive. Fletcher is pictured below. It is unknown if the suspects are in a gang or what the motive is.
However, in Fox 8's package on this story they provided the viewer with a good look at the Rosewood Neighborhood Park Sign. While some graffiti is meaningless other graffiti represents gang territory. The Rosewood Neighborhood Park Sign is littered with gang graffiti. The recent shootings help back that theory up tremendously.
The big 13 is a symbol for SUR 13. The number 13 is commonly used to show ones alliance with the gang. Sur 13 is a Latino Gang that operates in Greensboro. The picture below was taken by the Greensboro Police Department during an investigation regarding SUR 13.
The three dots beside the 13 are the signs of another gang. SID has received information about several individuals claiming to be Blood members or subjects having burn marks in the shape of Dog Paws. United Blood Nations (UBN) and Blood gang members use the bulldog as a gang symbol. This symbol can take many forms especially in the shape of tattoos, drawings and burn marks. Dawg or Dog Paws are burn marks usually located on the right upper arm, wrist, hands or even the right ankles.
To the right of the dog paw symbol is a CRIPS sign. When the police are getting shot at by young men and there are gang tags on the neighborhood park sign it would appear that most of the residents carrying and shooting guns in this area are gang members.
There is also gang speculation in the motive for another recent shooting.
At 11:20pm on 7/01/2007, in the 400 block of Boyd Street Greensboro Police found the body of Ernest Washington Dixon III in the street. He was 16 years old.
The next day on 07/02/2007, at 401 Boyd Street Greensboro Police Officers responded to a Discharge of Firearm call.
The residents told police someone from a vehicle drove up and began shooting at an unoccupied 2007 Jeep parked next to 401 Boyd St. The residence was occupied at the time, but no one was injured. The vehicle is described as a light brown 2000 model minivan with black trim on the bottom. The suspect is described as a black male, 16-18 yoa, light skinned, with dreadlocks.
On Monday, during a NC Mayor's meeting about the gang problem, Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday said gang violence is at an all time high. It was also reported that there are 14 major gangs in the Triad. Criminal gang activity is up 32% in Greensboro alone. Greensboro has seen 13th homicides so far this year. Four were under 20 years old. Unfortunately, some of the shooters are young too.
Last Wednesday, a young 33 year old Wiley Pressley was found shot in his store, Mr. Music and More, on E. Market St. A 15 year old boy was charged Monday with murder for allegedly shooting Pressley.
We should not see these shootings and the tragic loss of lives as just brief stories from news clips and headlines in the police blotter, but as a loss of our own.
Remember back in January when the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Project held a public meeting to discuss the fight between Palestinian students and football players at Guilford College? The GTCRP said they called the meeting because they wanted to "discuss the incident in the context of race/ethic relations and reconciliation." We know they called a public meeting about Guilford College. Wonder if they'll have one regarding the most recent violence?
Doesn't the recent violence deserve an "urgent call to action?"
Greensboro police officers are in increasing danger. While Mitch is busy protecting James and Julius' civil rights, who's got the back of the officers on the street? And while city leaders (Mitch & Sandy) claim they're taking care of officers by ending rotating shifts, police response times have increased significantly during certain periods of the day, (for example, 4:00-6:00pm: see Ray Warren shootings) making a dangerous situation even more dangerous.
Here is your classic example of racism, folks. You've been searching for something intolerable for long enough. All of the violence has one thing in common: Poverty. And you can't separate poverty and race in Greensboro. Which makes it racism. But obviously not the intolerable kind. Nelson's written a lot of letters, but he hasn't written one about this. Skip hasn't blogged about it. There hasn't been a press conference. No public statements from the Pulpit Forum.
If this were white people, or rich people, or in a better part of town, I suspect the response would be overwhelming. Imagine a teenager found dead in the road, an unoccupied vehicle shot at, a shoot-out with police officers, and then shots fired during live news coverage all within a two-day period in an affluent white neighborhood in Greensboro.
3 comments:
The response would be the same knothead...theres not enough police officers in the department to put on the streets. To rightly patrol the size of Greensboro and serve its citzens, the department needs to have 800-1000 officers.
But would the response from the COMMUNITY be the same? I can't speak for Ben, but it doesn't seem to me that he's blaming police officers here, but rather that he's pointing to the lack of response, concern, outrage, reaction, etc. from the larger community.
Is this kind of violence, in certain areas of our city, routine? Acceptable? I don't think so. But I agree that if the violence was happening in more affluent neighborhoods, then there would likely be more of a reaction from the community, and more pressure on Council to provide whatever funding or resources Chief Bellamy needs to create a gang unit and to get more officers on the street -- now!
And enforcement is only part of the story -- intervention is needed, too. We cannot ignore the needs of these young people just because they live in a different neighborhood. What hurts one of us, hurts all of us.
YOU KNOW WHAT FORGET THIS BULLSHIT THAT POLICE DEPT DOESNT HAVE ENOUGH POLICE OFFICERS!!!THEY DO!!!THEY ARE CORPORLS SGT'S LT'S!AND NONE OF THEM ANSWER CALLS!! ALL THEY DO IS RIDE AROUND WASTING GAS!!THEY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO ANSWER CALLS LIKE THE REST OF US!THAT GOES FOR YOU TO LT HINSON!STOP MEETING UP WITH FEMALES AND ANSWER CALLS!!!
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