San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Teen’s killing energizes gun tip program
On his first day at a new high school in Fairfield, Ahmar Willis texted his mother: “In school now. I love you.”
Gina Wright replied that she loved him, too.
But when she didn’t hear from Ahmar after school let out, she started worrying. Then came a phone call from Ahmar’s father. Outside a football game at Armijo High, the 16-year-old basketball player and swimmer who dreamed of becoming an accountant or architect had been shot to death. Police described an Aug. 24 gunbattle involving minors who illegally obtained a firearm.
“My body was hurting all over,” Wright recalled through tears. “My skin was just peeling. It felt like Peter Pan when he peels the shadow off. I said, ‘Oh, my God, Ahmar is gone. What is my mouth saying?’ ”
While authorities are confident that they have Ahmar’s killer in custody, the slaying has spurred a cry for action in the city of about 115,000 people. It has also prompted police to urge residents to take part in a gun-control strategy that is viewed with either excitement or skepticism.
Fairfield is going beyond traditional gun buybacks by offering up to $500 cash for anonymous tips about anyone
“This is crazy. These are kids with guns, and now we’ve got a kid laying in the morgue.” Pamela Bertani, Fairfield councilwoman
who might have an illegal gun. The program — which has existed in some form for decades but wasn’t well-known until police recently publicized it — has already sparked interest from other law enforcement agencies in the region.
“It actually sounds like a really good idea,” said Richmond police Lt. Matt Stonebraker, a department spokesman. “Every firearm that is confiscated could be checked for ballistics, and from there it could also be linked to possibly a homicide or another crime.”
Fairfield Councilwoman Catherine Moy lauded the goal of confiscating illegal guns, but said people should be cooperating without the promise of cash.
“What I would love to see is for people to do that anyway, even if they’re not getting paid, and the reward is that you have a safer neighborhood,” she said, adding that the policy should be reviewed by the council.
“I never got a chance to look at it,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve had enough of those transactions to see if it has helped.”
The conversation is one measure of how deeply Ahmar’s killing has shaken Fairfield, and how communities continue to struggle to keep guns from falling into the wrong hands.
On the night of the shooting, Councilwoman Pamela Bertani was at a business meeting in Jack London Square in Oakland when she received messages from the city manager and her family. Instead of playing football on the field, Bertani’s son was on lockdown in the school auditorium.
She drove the 40 miles back to Fairfield as police swarmed the Armijo campus and reported finding the suspect hiding among nearly 500 students, parents and teachers.
At the next council meeting, on Sept. 4, Bertani made an emotional plea to dozens of residents who packed the chambers. She told them to join neighborhood watches and faith-based organizations committed to decreasing violent crimes.
“We are not going to become desensitized to this,” Bertani said later. “This is crazy. These are kids with guns, and now we’ve got a kid laying in the morgue. We’ve got to figure out what needs to happen to be safer, to be more vigilant.”
From 2016 to 2017, the number of firearms used in aggravated assaults in the city jumped from 49 to 62, according to state records. Guns used in armed robberies increased from 40 to 54.
The gun tip program, which offers cash for information leading to the arrest of someone with an illegal weapon, was reinvigorated in 2017, when officials upped the reward amount by $300. Then in February, Fairfield police introduced the program to schools, said Lt. Greg Hurlbut.
Tips can be anonymous, but at least a name and number must be provided so the department knows where to send the reward, which comes out of the police budget. The department would prefer to have a tipster serve as a witness in court, if needed, but it’s not required, Hurlbut said.
After promoting the program this year with posters around high schools, authorities received information that led to the arrest of a student who had a gun on campus, Hurlbut said. The student, who was not identified, spent 30 days in juvenile hall — and the tipster received an undisclosed amount of cash.
Despite that success, the effort has been met with uncertainty by some Fairfield residents, including Thomas Tringali, 51. He said it made him nervous that somebody “could benefit from just telling on somebody else.”
“I don’t think I’d ever tell the police,” he said.
In February, the Los Angeles City Council approved the Illegal Firearm Recovery Reward Program, which is similar to Fairfield’s. Once implemented, it will be integrated with Crime Stoppers — an anonymous crime-tip service funded by nonprofits — and offer a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of an unlawful gun. The program was modeled after a 2017 initiative in the Ventura County city of Oxnard. New York City has a reward program, as does Washington, which allows people full anonymity by receiving payments through a single-use debit card.
Fairfield’s commitment to bringing down violent crime is encouraging to Gina Wright, even if it brings little peace to her and her family after the loss of Ahmar.
At her only son’s funeral, she sat in a pew at Bethel Community Church directly in front of the closed blue casket covered with white lilies. Behind her were hundreds of Ahmar’s family members, teachers and friends.
They remembered his “stoic personality” and rare smiles, but when his godmother took the podium, those in the room were reminded of what was at stake. Tears streamed down her face as she spoke directly to Ahmar’s friends, who were seated with laminated photos of the slain boy hanging from their necks by lanyards.
“Look at this,” she said. “He is gone, but you have the blessing that you are still here. You take this as a lesson, and whatever in your life that you are doing wrong, you change that today — because tomorrow is not coming.”
Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani