Drugs, gangs fuel record for homicides
Candles illuminated first grief and then horror on the faces of children at the vigil for a slain friend as darkclothed gunmen sprayed the crowd of mourners with bullets.
The group had gathered on Barthman Avenue on the South Side in mid-December to remember Brandon Meeks, 29, who had been gunned down there two days earlier.
Four more were struck with bullets during that vigil, including a 9-year-old girl. One of them died: Chaz Robertson, 32, a friend of Meeks.
In what has been the deadliest year in Columbus’ 205-year history, this homicide was the most galling for city leaders, police and leaders of the black community.
Robertson’s killing was No. 132 of the year. In all, 143 people died to break the city’s record of 139 set in 1991 at the height of the cocaine wars.
“When people can’t even gather to mourn their loved one without fearing for their safety, what kind of community do we have?” said Nana Watson, head of the Columbus chapter of the NAACP.
The homicide surge flows from three problems: the opioid epidemic, access to guns, and gang violence. Those problems and the killings they have spawned are straining relations between the Columbus Division of Police and leaders at City Hall at a time when the city is looking for unity.
The violence has been concentrated in the Hilltop neighborhood west of Downtown, the South Side, and the Linden neighborhood north of Downtown. Killings in those areas accounted for 48 of the homicides last year.
The homicide numbers profile the violence: 111 of the victims were black, and all but of 10 of them were males. The median age was 29 and at least 119 — 83 percent — of the victims were shot to death.
“We have more murder cases than we’ve ever had in memory,” said Sam Shamansky, a defense attorney. “And they are all drug - related and all of it: theft of drugs and getting money to buy the drugs.”
Drug culture deja vu
There are parallels to what happened in 1991 when the previous record was set. It was the height of the crack cocaine epidemic’s gang wars and drive-by shootings. In 2017, the epidemic is opioids.
The Franklin County coroner’s office announced in midDecember that the county had registered more drug overdose deaths from January to September last year than in all of 2016.
Fentanyl was the leading cause of death, with 230 connected to the powerful opioid during that period of 2017.
The levels of gun violence in 2017 haven’t been seen since the height of the crack epidemic, said Sgt. David Sicilian, who oversees the first- shift homicide unit. “They resolve problems with violence and guns,” he said.
“We saw it with the violence in the crack years.”
And like the crack era of the early 1990s, homicide detectives are struggling to find the killers. They plead for the public’s help.
“Help us,” Sicilian said. “We’re doing everything we can.”
And just like 30 years ago, there is a growing mistrust of police and an anti- snitch sentiment in high-crime neighborhoods.
Homicide detectives in Columbus have solved less than 40 percent of slayings this year, compared to the national clearance rate of 59 percent, according to Columbus police data as of Dec. 29. Detectives have open warrants for an additional six people. If they’re caught, the rate would jump to 43 percent.
“Our guys didn’t all of the sudden become bad detectives,” said Jason Pappas, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9. “You’ve had this huge surge in homicides and there aren’t more detectives, so it’s just more work pushed on the same guys.”
Pleas for help, peace
Days after Robertson was killed at the vigil, police Chief Kim Jacobs pleaded with the community to step up and help police with tips.
“We believe that a number of (homicides) are related to each other,” she said. “We are a community that suffers from too much violence.”
Jacobs added that more guns are on the street and being used in crimes.
Through Dec. 29, officers had seized 2,750 firearms, more than 300 above the year before and 500 more than in 2015, setting a record, according to records provided by police. A total of 365 had been reported as stolen.
As of November, 2,073 firearms seized last year were connected to criminal investigations.
“More guns are out there, and more guns are being used,” Jacobs said. “There are community members that can encourage people to leave their guns at home.”
Nationwide, violent crime rates are falling significantly, but homicides have ticked upward nationally during the last two years.
The National Institute of Justice, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, released a study in November of the rising homicide rates in 2015 and 2016 across the country.
The study found “expansion in illicit drug markets brought about by the heroin and synthetic opioid epidemic” and an antipolice sentiment were the main causes of the increase.
Columbus and Cleveland both experienced marked increases in their homicide rates. In the last few years, Cleveland has had doubledigit increases. As of Dec. 26, the city of about 385,000 people had 128 homicides in 2017.
One reason for the increases in Columbus, Pappas said, are gangs. Police have identified 40 gangs operating in the region, with more than 4,000 active members.
Both Meeks and Robertson were members of the Deuce Deuce Bloods gang, law-enforcement sources confirmed to The Dispatch. Meeks’ accused killer, Darnell Vinson, is a Bomb Squad member — a group made of different sects of Bloods, according to police. Police caught Vinson after he jumped from a second-story window near where Meeks had been killed.
Police have tied him to at least four homicides in 2017. They’re investigating whether he could be responsible for more deaths, Sicilian said.
Watson, president of the NAACP, said she and a few area pastors plan to meet with gang members “and tell them to leave their guns at home.”
“This has got to stop,” she said. “We need to have more conversations in the black community about this, but we all need to address this issue head-on.”
Stephanie Hightower, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, oversees a city-funded program to intervene before gang violence erupts.
She said her street monitors are noticing an uptick in gang violence but are reporting
that drug trafficking is the main cause for the homicide increase.
“This really is an epidemic, and we have to be intentional and put the resources in play to address this,” she said. “Those drug addiction dollars are needed more than anything, and we can’t address this the same way we’ve addressed these things in the past.”
Tension at City Hall
Jacobs’ plea for help during a news conference also was a sign that tensions have escalated between her officers and the administration of Mayor Andrew J. Ginther.
Jacobs called the news conference without Ginther’s permission or input, Ginther’s spokeswoman said.
A frustrated Jacobs told reporters that she would take as many new officers as City Hall could give her.
“I believe police are a line of defense for violent crime in the city,” she said.
It was the first public plea for more officers, although internal emails show concerns were being raised last summer.
“I am acutely aware of the strain our personnel are feeling relative to the staffing challenges we face in patrol,” Commander Jennifer Knight wrote to her lieutenants. “The staffing crisis is prevalent throughout the division, and I do not know when we will experience any relief.”
The same day Jacobs held her news conference, the city’s Civil Service Commission, a three-member panel appointed by the mayor, approved Ginther’s request for the power to hire the next police and fire chiefs from outside city ranks.
Two days later, Jacobs doubled-down on her call for more officers during a budget hearing at City Hall. She also mentioned during the hearing that there was gang violence, which city leaders have hesitated to acknowledge.
The police union endorsed Ginther’s opponent in 2015, and the mayor’s relationship with officers has only eroded since then.
Union members voted noconfidence in Ginther and members of the Columbus City Council after Ginther supported Safety Director Ned Pettus in firing Officer Zachary Rosen. A video showed Rosen stomp his foot on a suspect.
Pappas and other police officers said Ginther’s administration was punishing Rosen for his role in the 2016 police shooting death of Henry Green. Rosen was cleared by investigators in the death of Green and was not charged with any crimes.
In November, Ginther announced the end of the summer safety initiative, a task force that used plainclothed officers to patrol neighborhoods in unmarked cars to identify potential criminals and take guns off the street. Rosen was taking part in that initiative when he shot Green.
Policing costs soar
Jacobs said that beyond personal safety, taxpayers should care about the rising number of homicides because investigating each killing costs the city more than $1 million. Expenses for overtime, equipment and SWAT responses all are up significantly, she said.
Ginther’s office countered that adding 200 more officers, which Pappas has called for, would cost the city $26 million.
Are more officers the answer?
The city had 1,441 officers in 1991 with a population of 663,000. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents.
In response to the 1991 slayings, then-Mayor Greg Lashutka increased foot patrols in neighborhoods in 1992 and announced the city would hire 360 sworn officers over next few years.
The homicide rate began to fall.
By 2000, the city had nearly 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents.
Today, the city has 1,918 sworn officers and a population of 860,100. That’s about 2.3 officers per 1,000.
“We are not keeping up with attrition,” Jacobs said.
The latest figures released from the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2013 sampled 100 police departments from around the country to determine the number of sworn officers cities deployed.
Cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit had the highest staffing levels at about 4 officers per 1,000 people. Baltimore, which had more than 300 homicides this year, has 4.7 officers per 1,000 people.
Other areas such as Cleveland and Cincinnati had 3.9 and 3.3.
Cities with which Columbus often is compared, such as Austin, Indianapolis and Nashville, had about 2 officers per 1,000.
Indianapolis, which also broke its own homicide record in 2017 — 152 deaths as of Dec. 26 — has plans to hire an additional 150 police officers. The city abolished its Department of Public Safety and returned to neighborhood policing. The roll-out has been slow, but in areas where the changes have been made, officials reported a 29 percent drop in homicides.
Indianapolis started a Violence Reduction Partnership in June targeting the most violent offenders, offering support services and stepped up prosecution for those who continue to commit gunrelated and violent crimes.
Toward a safer city
In November, Columbus rolled out the Safe Neighborhood Initiative, a program similar to the one in Indianapolis.
The county’s adult probation department and police Criminal Intelligence Unit, which investigates gang crime, identified 16 people on probation for violent crimes. Nonprofit agencies met with them and handed out business cards and packets of information.
Jacobs was frustrated that Ginther’s office sought little input from her and her staff before the mayor finalized his budget, according to officers and City Hall sources involved in the discussions.
Jacobs said she has asked the City Council to add more officers than the 70 allotted in Ginther’s 2018 operating budget. She said those 70 hires will only keep up with retirements and departures.
“When I was told about the budget, we had no additional police,” Jacobs said at her news conference. “I know it’s now in the hands of City Council.”
As of October, 359 officers were eligible to retire from the division, including Jacobs.
When voters approved a 0.5 percent increase in the city’s income tax in 2009, they did so after hearing a promise by city leaders, including then-Councilman Ginther, that it would help avoid cuts to safety forces. And while it is true that the budget maintains status quo, police numbers have not grown as violent crime increased. At the same time, other programs have been added to the city budget, such as the relatively new departments of education and neighborhoods.
Former Mayor Michael B. Coleman opted to create new departments such as education and increase funding to open and reopen park facilities.
Since taking office, Ginther has done the same and recently created the department of neighborhoods to try to address poverty and crime.
Davis, Ginther’s spokeswoman, said those programs are meant to address drug use and community involvement to reduce crime.
In the meantime, detectives continue to work long shifts. This month, detectives who normally work on old homicide cases in which the trail has grown cold have been reassigned to work assaults and free up other detectives to work on fresh homicides.
Homicide Sgt. Sicilian, whose career spans three decades, knows that a generation of children who were born during the crack cocaine era are now the age of many of the victims and gunmen in cases detectives are working.
“Clearly, we want answers,” he said. “Why are these occurring?”