Community pleads for an end to teen violence

by Dustin Grove (grove@wsbt.com)

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shootings in South Bend

A series of shootings over the weekend in South Bend has many in the community pleading for an end to the violence. (WSBT photo)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Oct 27, 2008 at 5:05 PM EST

Story Updated: Oct 27, 2008 at 6:25 PM EST

SOUTH BEND — There were five shootings in less than four hours this weekend. One man is dead and four others injured, leaving a community trying to understand why.

The shootings started early Sunday morning. One of them claimed 21-year-old Bradley Walls' life. Someone shot him in the head as he drove in downtown South Bend. Police found a semi-automatic handgun in front of a nearby 1st Source Bank.

Four other shootings Sunday morning injured people between 16 and 23 years old. Police say they're investigating the possibility the shootings could be connected, but they have made no arrests so far.

While they search for suspects in each of those shootings, they're also trying to locate the last of five teenagers suspected in another homicide last week.

Authorities say that suspect, 17-year-old Joe Williams, should be considered armed and dangerous. He has a tattoo on his body that says "Prayers of a sinner."

Williams and four other teens walked into a home on October 19, near Woodside and Michigan, demanded money from 22-year-old James Martin, and then shot and killed him.

The 22-year-old victim's family was in courtroom Monday, trying to understand what a lot of people in this community are trying to understand: Why are so many teenagers here making the decision to shoot first and think later?

At South Bend's Martin Luther King Center it wasn't just the exercises taking the wind out of seniors.

“When we were coming up, you fight and get it over with; but now they have to shoot,” said one member of the center.

They are upset and fed up over more gun violence in the city they've called home for decades.

Today, Mary Brown is grieving over another shooting entirely: the one last week that killed her 22-year-old nephew inside his home on Woodside. Five teenagers are accused in that murder.

“They took something away from his mother,” said Brown. “It's hurting their family. You know, it's got to stop."

Amid city budget cuts that could take police officers off the street, neighborhood groups and community centers are doing their part to step up; from afternoon activities at the MLK Center, to the Boys and Girls Club — now adding more locations to do the same.

Two summers ago the South Bend Police even hit the airwaves with a public service announcement campaign that said "Enough is Enough."

"I'm tired of losing my friends over senseless violence," a man in the PSA said.

Mary Brown lost not just a friend; but a nephew.

"It's got to stop," she said.

There have now been 12 homicides so far this year in South Bend. And while that's more than last year, it's still down considerably from 2001 when police handled a total of 21 murders.

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