City homicide toll 'very sad'
E/C Annie
For Richmond police, 94 faces show victims of a cycle of violence
Sunday, January 2, 2005
The pictures occupy an entire wall of the second-floor conference room
at the Richmond Police Department.
There are three rows of faces, all neatly reduced to 8½-by-11-inch
color photocopies, glued to squares of white poster board. Smiling
graduation pictures, cropped family photos, Virginia driver's licenses
and, most of all, mug shots.
One picture for each of the 94 people slain last year in the city of
Richmond.
"It's very sad -- it hurts," said Detective Ron Brown, a city native
and 12-year Richmond police veteran who has watched the line of victims
creep around the room during the last 12 months, occupying the same
amount of space taken up by the 94 homicides in 2003.
"You feel for the families left behind. You know they are grieving."
Sixteen-year-old Peytron I. Johnson's picture was the first to go up on
the board, shortly after his fatal shooting last New Year's Day. It
occurred just a block behind the police department's 3rd Precinct
headquarters. It remains unsolved.
By the end of January, 10 people had been killed in the city, making it
the bloodiest month of the year.
The last picture on the police department's 2004 death row belongs to
Earl L. Mayo, who was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve in the 2800
block of Fourth Avenue in what investigators described as a domestic
argument. Police last week arrested Anthony Brown, 29, in the killing.
>From January to December, the faces on display tell the story of a city
that, for all its ballyhooed new business development and bond
upgrades, begins 2005 still trapped in the cycle of poverty, drugs and
gun violence that make it the ninth-most-dangerous place to live in the
country.
As in previous years, homicides in Richmond in 2004 disproportionately
claimed blacks. Of the 94 slain, 82 were black, 10 were white and two
were Hispanic. Eleven were females.
Last year, the majority of homicide victims in the city had at one time
or another been charged with committing a crime themselves. Sixty-nine
of the pictures along the wall appear to be taken from police mug
shots.
"Most of them have been in the system before," Brown acknowledged,
shaking his head. "We're dealing with the lifestyle choices that people
make."
Robberies, arguments and drugs are the common motives listed for the
slayings under the picture of the victims. At least five people --
including the city's oldest and youngest victims were killed in
domestic-related crimes.
The youngest victim was No. 48 -- 23-month-old Shawnetta Artis, killed
on June 14. Her picture in the police display shows a pig-tailed
toddler straining to get out of a baby-blue car seat.
The oldest victim was No. 35 -- 72-year-old Herman Phillips, killed on
May 19 inside a house on the city's North Side. His face for the wall
was cropped out of a family portrait.
Some of the dead were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Abraham T. Reyna, 23, the 41st homicide victim, was shot to death on
Memorial Day by a stray bullet from a gunfight as he was driving in his
pickup truck down the 5600 block of Hull Street Road.
Michael Gunn, 26, became the city's 78th victim on Oct. 21 while
standing in the 1300 block of Milton Street. Prosecutors say he was
beaten to death by three teens when he refused to give one of them a
cigarette. His thin, dark face and piercing eyes stare out from under a
heavy knit wool cap.
Others were cut down in the prime of their young lives.
Take the smiling high school graduation picture of No. 14 Bryant
Jacobs, 19, a football player for Virginia Union University shot in the
3100 block of Snead Court in South Richmond on Feb. 16. Or the snapshot
of a seemingly distracted Labrian Harris, 14, a troubled teen who was
shot to death on Oct. 18 in the yard of a home in the 1500 block of
Sunbury Road. Investigators think his death might have resulted from a
dispute over a drug transaction. He was No. 76.
"The kids are getting younger," the Rev. Dwight C. Jones said after
officiating at Harris' funeral at First Baptist Church of South
Richmond. Jones, who is also a member of the House of Delegates, had
also presided at Harris' baptism.
"I do many of these funerals. When you get to 14 [years old], it's just
awful."
Not everyone who died in gun violence this year was included in the
city's homicide count. [dst: reworded per ed.: ]Three suspects died in
shooting incidents involving police.
On March 28, 20-year-old Quinshawn Booker was shot in the head as he
fled pursuing officers in the Rainbow Village apartment complex. The
medical examiner ruled the shooting an accident, saying Booker shot
himself when he tripped and fell down a set of stairs.
On May 29, Santanna B. Olavarria, 21, was shot to death by police in
East Richmond after fleeing a traffic stop that dragged an officer a
short distance. Virginia State Police are investigating the case.
Then on Sept. 20, robbery suspect Curtis Blount, 19, died from a single
gunshot wound to the head fired at close range after being trapped by
police in an alley behind a Mosby Street convenience store. Law
enforcement sources have said that despite police exchanging fire with
Blount, his fatal wound appears to have been self-inflicted. The case
is still under investigation by the police department's
internal-affairs division.
The medical examiner also is investigating the suspicious death of a
woman whose badly decomposed body was found in an abandoned home in the
1st Precinct last month[eke: dec: ], so the homicide total for 2004
might grow.
Even before taking office today, incoming Mayor L. Douglas Wilder
promised to make public safety his "first priority."
Former police Chief Andre Parker is gone, and a national search is
under way for a replacement. Wilder also has promised to find funding
to increase staffing in the police department's violent-crimes unit,
which has roughly 30 investigators and supervisors to handle 3,000
violent crimes a year, including homicides.
Officials have cited understaffing and overwhelming caseloads --
combined with the reluctance of many Richmonders in high-crime areas to
cooperate in investigations -- as major factors preventing a higher
case-solving rate in major crimes.
Last year, investigators solved or "cleared" 47 of Richmond's 94
homicides, according to police statistics.
On the wall of faces, the word "ARREST" is recorded in red capital
letters below each of those 47 pictures.
But every police officer -- and every victim's family member knows that
is not enough.
"I just look at the faces," said Brown. "Life is precious."
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779973810&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
cro...@earthlink.net
has about 197,000 residents, Austin, Texas (where I live) about 656,000.
Austin had 25 murders in 2001 (last year I could quickly find stats for, but
I know the crime rate is DOWN here)...so Richmond has less than 1/3 the
population, but 4 times as many murders...or a murder rate roughly 12 times
that of Austin, when adjusted for size...yikes! No wonder I like it here!
"E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
news:1104681005.3...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
E/C Annie
cro...@earthlink.net wrote:
> I thought 94 murders seemed like a lot, so I did some
research...Richmond
> has about 197,000 residents, Austin, Texas (where I live) about
656,000.
> Austin had 25 murders in 2001 (last year I could quickly find stats
for, but
> I know the crime rate is DOWN here)...so Richmond has less than 1/3
the
> population, but 4 times as many murders...or a murder rate roughly 12
times
> that of Austin, when adjusted for size...yikes! No wonder I like it
here!
> "E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
> news:1104681005.3...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> As in previous years, homicides in Richmond in 2004
disproportionately
> claimed blacks. Of the 94 slain, 82 were black, 10 were white and two
> were Hispanic. Eleven were females.
>
> Last year, the majority of homicide victims in the city had at one
time
> or another been charged with committing a crime themselves.
Sixty-nine
> of the pictures along the wall appear to be taken from police mug
> shots.
Actually, I feel fairly safe living on the edge of Richmond.
Unfortunately, it's mostly our black kids killing each other - 69 of
the 94 deaths are of people already in the system. The downtown clubs
are still active and seem safe enough. This past year our police chief
reached out to churches who are trying to work with the inner-city
youth gangs to cut down on murder of our youth. It is sad.
Annie
phd
And I'll just add that we Richmonders are very hopeful that, with former
governor Doug Wilder as our newly-elected mayor, things will begin to
improve dramatically.
mary. (very surprised to hear that Richmond has less than 200K
citizens...it feels like a much bigger city than that!)
cro...@earthlink.net
include the "outskirts" or metropolitan area...
"phd" <plain...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:41D8A600...@yahoo.com...
E/C Annie
cro...@earthlink.net wrote:
> I thought 94 murders seemed like a lot, so I did some
research...Richmond
> has about 197,000 residents, Austin, Texas (where I live) about
656,000.
> Austin had 25 murders in 2001 (last year I could quickly find stats
for, but
> I know the crime rate is DOWN here)...so Richmond has less than 1/3
the
> population, but 4 times as many murders...or a murder rate roughly 12
times
> that of Austin, when adjusted for size...yikes! No wonder I like it
here!
You got me to searching :-) Even with all our crime, Forbes has
Richmond, VA as the 10th best place for business! Notice Austin, TX
is 3rd. More info at:
http://www.forbes.com/2004/05/05/04bestplacesland.html
Special Report
Best Places For Business
Kurt Badenhausen, 05.07.04, 7:00 AM ET
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
The best metro areas to launch a business or a career often revolve
around universities that offer a diverse, educated work force and,
especially when they are far from big cities, relatively low costs.
Such regions--Raleigh, Austin and Ann Arbor among them--are also
attractive places to live, judging by the patterns of migration.
Best Metros
Madison, WI
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Austin, TX
Washington, DC
Atlanta, GA
Provo, UT
Boise, ID
Huntsville, AL
Lexington, KY
Richmond, VA
East Coast Annie