Little Rock Braces Itself for Rising Homicide Rates
LR declares war on homicide as year's 25th victim turns up
BY JIM BROOKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Minutes after Little Rock city officials concluded a news conference announcing an initiative to combat an increasing number of homicides in the capital city this year - 24 slayings at the time of the gathering - detectives were called to the 25th homicide a few blocks away.
Mayor Jim Dailey, who in a similar news conference last month urged residents to find "some other way" to solve their disputes besides "shooting each other," said Wednesday that he was concerned about the effect the spike in homicides this year might have on the city's ability to draw new businesses and conventions.
"Unequivocally, yes, that is one of the reasons that this has our immediate attention," Dailey said. "Our whole city government is committed to public safety as our No. 1 issue." The mayor said the "current state of homicides are shock- ing and stunning" and "it's incredibly unbelievable that we'd be facing this level of violence." "This is hurting recruiting, and we wanted to let the public know what we're doing about it," he said, adding that his thoughts were with the victims.
Just minutes after the conference at the Regional Chamber of Commerce at Markham and Scott streets, while Police Chief Stuart Thomas and mayor were still talking to reporters, a 911 caller told dispatchers he had discovered a body in an apartment in the 500 block of East Seventh Street in downtown Little Rock.
Thomas left the news conference and went to the crime scene, where detectives already were interviewing neighbors. The victim had not been identified by late Wednesday afternoon, and no one had been arrested.
City officials called Wednesday's conference to announce a new program called Operation Quiet Nights, in which a team of officers will concentrate on target areas identified by the number of "shots fired" calls, violent crimes and narcotics and vice complaints.
"We're going to go after guns, and we're going to go after drugs," the chief said. "Any place that we have congregations of people, we're going to be there." Thomas said that more than $250,000 in overtime has been authorized for the officers involved in the new program. Gun crimes will be referred for federal prosecution because they carry a mandatory 103-month federal prison sentence, he said.
Sixty percent of Little Rock's annual general fund budget of $119 million goes toward public safety, including the Police and Fire departments.
Dailey said he recalled that in 1993, once the HBO documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock was broadcast, he heard from potential convention participants wondering whether the city was safe. The mayor said the crime situation is different now from what it was 12 years ago.
Mike Coulson, who is chairman of the chamber's Public Safety Task Force, echoed Dailey's concerns.
"This is a quality-of-life issue," he said. "Little Rock is a city on the rise, but we still have to address this issue." In 1993, the city recorded 76 homicides, six of which were ruled justifiable. Through the first four months of that year, police investigated 22 killings.
As he had noted at a previous news conference, Thomas said this year's homicide surge has not been accompanied by a similar increase in other major crimes, unlike what happened in 1993. "Those of us in law enforcement and in the community are wondering if we're seeing some deja vu here," Thomas said. "I don't think we are.
"What we're experiencing from the homicide side of things is a rise in the number of sporadic and separate events that escalate from arguments to violence," he said. "We're not seeing a significant increase in our overall crime rate." Through the first quarter of this year, for instance, 1,700 fewer major offenses have been reported than in the first three months of 1993, Thomas said.
"No, it is not 1993 all over again," Thomas emphasized.
But it's been a violent year. In the past two days, three homicides have occurred in Little Rock.
On Tuesday, James Newsome, 48, of Little Rock, died a day after getting into a fight on a Central Arkansas Transit Authority bus with Thomas Millward, 46, of Hot Springs.
Millward told police he had gotten into a fight with Newsome on the bus, which continued after the two got off. Millward told officers that Newsome grabbed him, so he struck Newsome. Police said Newsome's head struck a concrete divider on the street. He was taken to a Little Rock hospital, where he died.
Police will forward the completed case file to the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office for a decision on whether Millward will be charged.
And early Wednesday, Lonnie Woods, 32, of Little Rock was shot in the head and killed in southwest Little Rock. Police arrested Marcus Whitaker, 31, of 5001 W. 65th St. on a first-degree murder charge in Woods' death. Whitaker, whose street name is "Slow Motion," also is charged with first-degree battery in the shooting of a second man, whom police had not identified Wednesday night.
Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said the killing apparently was drugrelated.
When officers arrived at the Westgate Apartments about 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, they found Whitaker talking on a cell phone and holding a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. He was arrested and placed in a patrol car.
According to a police report, Whitaker said, "My name is SloMo and I'm helping y'all with these motherf****** pedophiles who are raping kids." Woods had a lengthy history of arrests and had been sentenced twice to state prison, but he had never been charged with a sex crime.
Whitaker pleaded innocent Wednesday in Little Rock District Court and was being held in lieu of $500,000 bond in the Pulaski County jail.
Thomas said the city's 23rd and 24th homicides are typical of the killings the city has seen so far this year.
"We're seeing confrontations between individuals that begin with a dispute and escalate into a homicide," he said. "It's different from the gang-versus-gang component that we had back in 1993." At least several other cities across the country have noted an increase in the number of "dispute killings" over the past year.
According to a recent story in The New York Times, police in Milwaukee, Houston and Philadelphia have documented an increase in the number of slayings attributed to relatively minor disputes that escalated into violence, primarily because of the availability of handguns.
Minor slights, instead of leading to fistfights, are more and more being settled with bullets, Thomas said.
"It's personal conflicts that are behind the majority of our homicides, and drugs are involved in quite a few of those," Thomas said.
Little Rock detectives have closed a majority of this year's killings. One of this year's slayings is expected to be ruled a justifiable homicide, so police don't count it in their official tally.
Of the 24 slayings that could be cleared by arrest, 14 have been closed, and warrants exist in one other.
On Monday, FBI agents in Seattle arrested Freno Daniels, 27, on a first-degree murder warrant in the March 9 slaying of Bobby Thomas inside his home on 31st Street.
Thomas said the clearance rate for this year's homicides may be related to the nature of "dispute killings." Most of the slayings aren't exactly whodunits, he said.
"We're seeing people who are being killed by acquaintances, and those cases are easier to clear." At the Fowler Square Apartments on Seventh Street, where detectives were investigating the latest homicide Wednesday afternoon, Brian Carpenter, 28, was stopped by yellow police tape after he arrived to sign the lease in a nearby apartment.
A Cabot resident, Carpenter, who is married with a 1-year-old daughter, was all packed and ready to make the move but admitted having second thoughts.
"It's kind of shocking," he said of the activity at the apartment.
"It might be a bad omen."
Information for this story was provided by Charlie Frago of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
BY JIM BROOKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Minutes after Little Rock city officials concluded a news conference announcing an initiative to combat an increasing number of homicides in the capital city this year - 24 slayings at the time of the gathering - detectives were called to the 25th homicide a few blocks away.
Mayor Jim Dailey, who in a similar news conference last month urged residents to find "some other way" to solve their disputes besides "shooting each other," said Wednesday that he was concerned about the effect the spike in homicides this year might have on the city's ability to draw new businesses and conventions.
"Unequivocally, yes, that is one of the reasons that this has our immediate attention," Dailey said. "Our whole city government is committed to public safety as our No. 1 issue." The mayor said the "current state of homicides are shock- ing and stunning" and "it's incredibly unbelievable that we'd be facing this level of violence." "This is hurting recruiting, and we wanted to let the public know what we're doing about it," he said, adding that his thoughts were with the victims.
Just minutes after the conference at the Regional Chamber of Commerce at Markham and Scott streets, while Police Chief Stuart Thomas and mayor were still talking to reporters, a 911 caller told dispatchers he had discovered a body in an apartment in the 500 block of East Seventh Street in downtown Little Rock.
Thomas left the news conference and went to the crime scene, where detectives already were interviewing neighbors. The victim had not been identified by late Wednesday afternoon, and no one had been arrested.City officials called Wednesday's conference to announce a new program called Operation Quiet Nights, in which a team of officers will concentrate on target areas identified by the number of "shots fired" calls, violent crimes and narcotics and vice complaints.
"We're going to go after guns, and we're going to go after drugs," the chief said. "Any place that we have congregations of people, we're going to be there." Thomas said that more than $250,000 in overtime has been authorized for the officers involved in the new program. Gun crimes will be referred for federal prosecution because they carry a mandatory 103-month federal prison sentence, he said.
Sixty percent of Little Rock's annual general fund budget of $119 million goes toward public safety, including the Police and Fire departments.
Dailey said he recalled that in 1993, once the HBO documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock was broadcast, he heard from potential convention participants wondering whether the city was safe. The mayor said the crime situation is different now from what it was 12 years ago.
Mike Coulson, who is chairman of the chamber's Public Safety Task Force, echoed Dailey's concerns.
"This is a quality-of-life issue," he said. "Little Rock is a city on the rise, but we still have to address this issue." In 1993, the city recorded 76 homicides, six of which were ruled justifiable. Through the first four months of that year, police investigated 22 killings.
As he had noted at a previous news conference, Thomas said this year's homicide surge has not been accompanied by a similar increase in other major crimes, unlike what happened in 1993. "Those of us in law enforcement and in the community are wondering if we're seeing some deja vu here," Thomas said. "I don't think we are.
"What we're experiencing from the homicide side of things is a rise in the number of sporadic and separate events that escalate from arguments to violence," he said. "We're not seeing a significant increase in our overall crime rate." Through the first quarter of this year, for instance, 1,700 fewer major offenses have been reported than in the first three months of 1993, Thomas said.
"No, it is not 1993 all over again," Thomas emphasized.
But it's been a violent year. In the past two days, three homicides have occurred in Little Rock.
On Tuesday, James Newsome, 48, of Little Rock, died a day after getting into a fight on a Central Arkansas Transit Authority bus with Thomas Millward, 46, of Hot Springs.
Millward told police he had gotten into a fight with Newsome on the bus, which continued after the two got off. Millward told officers that Newsome grabbed him, so he struck Newsome. Police said Newsome's head struck a concrete divider on the street. He was taken to a Little Rock hospital, where he died.
Police will forward the completed case file to the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office for a decision on whether Millward will be charged.
And early Wednesday, Lonnie Woods, 32, of Little Rock was shot in the head and killed in southwest Little Rock. Police arrested Marcus Whitaker, 31, of 5001 W. 65th St. on a first-degree murder charge in Woods' death. Whitaker, whose street name is "Slow Motion," also is charged with first-degree battery in the shooting of a second man, whom police had not identified Wednesday night.
Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said the killing apparently was drugrelated.
When officers arrived at the Westgate Apartments about 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, they found Whitaker talking on a cell phone and holding a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. He was arrested and placed in a patrol car.
According to a police report, Whitaker said, "My name is SloMo and I'm helping y'all with these motherf****** pedophiles who are raping kids." Woods had a lengthy history of arrests and had been sentenced twice to state prison, but he had never been charged with a sex crime.
Whitaker pleaded innocent Wednesday in Little Rock District Court and was being held in lieu of $500,000 bond in the Pulaski County jail.
Thomas said the city's 23rd and 24th homicides are typical of the killings the city has seen so far this year.
"We're seeing confrontations between individuals that begin with a dispute and escalate into a homicide," he said. "It's different from the gang-versus-gang component that we had back in 1993." At least several other cities across the country have noted an increase in the number of "dispute killings" over the past year.
According to a recent story in The New York Times, police in Milwaukee, Houston and Philadelphia have documented an increase in the number of slayings attributed to relatively minor disputes that escalated into violence, primarily because of the availability of handguns.
Minor slights, instead of leading to fistfights, are more and more being settled with bullets, Thomas said.
"It's personal conflicts that are behind the majority of our homicides, and drugs are involved in quite a few of those," Thomas said.
Little Rock detectives have closed a majority of this year's killings. One of this year's slayings is expected to be ruled a justifiable homicide, so police don't count it in their official tally.
Of the 24 slayings that could be cleared by arrest, 14 have been closed, and warrants exist in one other.
On Monday, FBI agents in Seattle arrested Freno Daniels, 27, on a first-degree murder warrant in the March 9 slaying of Bobby Thomas inside his home on 31st Street.
Thomas said the clearance rate for this year's homicides may be related to the nature of "dispute killings." Most of the slayings aren't exactly whodunits, he said.
"We're seeing people who are being killed by acquaintances, and those cases are easier to clear." At the Fowler Square Apartments on Seventh Street, where detectives were investigating the latest homicide Wednesday afternoon, Brian Carpenter, 28, was stopped by yellow police tape after he arrived to sign the lease in a nearby apartment.
A Cabot resident, Carpenter, who is married with a 1-year-old daughter, was all packed and ready to make the move but admitted having second thoughts.
"It's kind of shocking," he said of the activity at the apartment.
"It might be a bad omen."
Information for this story was provided by Charlie Frago of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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