Report: Nearly half of homicides involve gangs
A report conducted by a national research center concluded that a significantly small group of violent actors in Columbus were behind nearly half the city’s homicides that occurred in a nine-month period in 2020, the city’s deadliest year on record.
A team of six researchers at the National Network for Safe Communities worked with the Columbus Division of Police to review 107 homicides between January and September 2020 and identify active gangs – referred to
in the report sometimes as “groups” because the researchers said there was not evidence in some cases of the organization of a gang as much as an association of like-minded members.
Among the report’s most significant findings is that 17 gangs comprised of an estimated 480 total members – roughly .05% of the city’s population – were confirmed to be or suspected to be involved in 46% of homicides in that period, either as victims, perpetrators or both.
The study was completed in April of this year, six months after Columbus City Council approved an $80,000 contract in October with criminologist David Kennedy, who leads the NNSC at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, to implement the network’s Group Violence Intervention program in Columbus.
The report was made available hours before Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and police officials hosted a news conference in Audubon Park in North Linden to unveil the findings and tout some anti-violence initiatives the city already has in place.
Columbus officials said they hope that the report’s findings will allow law enforcement to more effectively focus on those in the city most likely to perpetrate and be victimized by serious violence.
“It is our shared objective to do what we can to restore peace and security in every neighborhood,” Ginther said Tuesday before assembled media. “We need everyone in the community to help with this effort.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NNSC researchers were unable to go out into the community and meet in person with law enforcement to discuss all types of violent crimes. Instead, NNSC and Columbus police agreed to concentrate on homicides in the city since a new record of 175 homicides was being set last year – a trend that continues this year as killings are within a dozen of the 2020 total with two and a half months still to go in 2021.
NNSC researchers met virtually on several days in January with Columbus law enforcement officials in an effort to identify the names of active gangs, the number of purported members in each, membership age ranges, the illegal activity they were suspected of engaging in, their territory, and the alliances and feuds they had with other groups.
All told, the estimated 480 gang or group members were confirmed to be involved in 36% of the analyzed homicides, and suspected of being involved in another 10%, meaning they were involved in nearly half the homicides during the January-september 2020 study period.
The Elaine Gangster Crips group that operates in several areas of Columbus and the Easthaven Bloods, believed to be active on Easthaven Drive on the Southeast Side, were among the larger gangs with what officials suspect is between 30 to 40 members each. Deuce Deuce, which is active in the area of 22nd Street and Livingston Avenue on the South Side, historically had about 100 members, but now has fewer, according to the report.
However, while the Blam Squad, active on East Main Street and Weyant Avenue on the East Side, and the Short North Posse had fewer suspected members, the report found that each perpetrated more violence, with both groups being behind three homicides in the studied time frame.
In most cases, the report found that individual gang members did not often kill out of the gang’s best interests, but rather had their own criminal motives.
The dynamic the researchers discovered in Columbus suggested that the violence was not often driven by the feuds and retaliation that characterize gang violence in other major American cities. Rather, money, drugs, and robbery were more often motivating factors.
Many of the suspected killers and victims, regardless of gang affiliation, were younger males, the report found.
Of the homicides studied, 66% of all victims and gang suspects were between the ages of 18 and 29. Of the juveniles involved in the gang-related killings, 70% were victims rather than the killers.
The release of the report comes as homicides continue to soar in Columbus and cities across the nation. As of Tuesday, 163 homicides have occurred in 2021 in Columbus, 13 away from surpassing last year’s record 175 killings.
Last week, the FBI released a report finding that the number of homicides in the U.S. jumped nearly 30% from 2019 to 2020, the single largest one-year increase on record.
According to NNSC’S findings, the trends for violence in Columbus mirrors that of other large cities across the nation, where a fraction of individuals are behind half of the homicides. In an effort to curb the killings, the network has implemented its Group Violence Intervention initiative in cities across the country, which it says has led to significant reductions in violence.
The report calls for city officials to assemble a partnership of law enforcement agencies, social service providers and community leaders such as clergy, civic association presidents and formerly imprisoned people to form relationships with those identified as being part of violent groups.
The report also recommends that Columbus law enforcement officials meet regularly to exchange intelligence and monitor the gang activity.
During the Tuesday media briefing, Columbus assistant police chief Lashanna Potts echoed the report’s assertion that the city’s response must include an anti-violence message from the community, as well as swift and fair criminal consequences for those who engage in violent crime, and a genuine offer of help for those who want to leave the criminal life behind.
“You cannot depend on policing alone to reduce crime,” Potts said.
Nana Watson, president of the NAACP Columbus branch, agreed. Addressing youth and gang violence, she told The Dispatch, has to start with the parents at home.
“This community cannot expect us to be the parent,” Watson said. “The parents have to take some type of responsibility. …We live in a more violent community than we ever have before – joblessness, one-parent households, having to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. And then they’ve got some teenagers at home, and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
Ginther highlighted a number of programs already in the works that align with the Group Violence Intervention’s philosophy.
That includes the Reroute program that has to date enrolled 46 young people involved in lower-level criminal activity to work with Columbus police, as well as VOICE, which so far has connected social workers with 28 people who have been treated at Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center for gunshot wounds, stab wounds or assault injuries.
In addition, a total of 705 young men have participated in Growing Up, an initiative started in August providing education, employment and mentoring in the Linden neighborhood, Ginther said.
“The violence we’re seeing today is different, and we need a new plan,” Ginther said. “One gang is too many in our city and we’re going to do everything in our power to offer folks a different path.”
Watson said adding programming through rec centers, churches and elsewhere is important to teach young people skills, especially conflict resolution and other things “that I don’t think they’re getting in school.”
But that programing has to be driven by the youth, she said.
Have the city’s young people “tell us what they need and see if what they’re asking is realistic, can it happen. Ask their opinion of it… Why do you think there’s crime? Why are you doing this? Let them tell us. We’ve got to include them in the conversation. In some way, we have to engage our youth and hear what they’re saying.”
Watson said she thinks that “young people are frustrated.”
“They don’t know where to go, what to do,” she said. “So they just engage in teenage activity, and sometimes that teenage activity results in the death of someone.”
While somebody in a fight pulling a knife when she was growing up was considered devastating, Watson said that today “it’s just the norm, pull a gun out on somebody as opposed to having to talk about why are we at this place, and our children aren’t thinking. … We haven’t taught them how to compromise.”
At the same time, Watson said that if law enforcement can pinpoint in a report where the gangs are around the community, then police need to “get busy and bust them up.”
“We need you to go after them. We need you to zone in on them,” Watson said of police. “… If they do know where they are, the expectation would be that they start gathering them up, one by one.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Kelley, who’s been involved in the prosecution of the T&A Crips and other local gangs, echoed Watson’s assessment.
Our groups, or gangs, whatever you want to call them, are way more armed than they have been in the past,” Kelley said. “Whenever a dispute arises or conflict arises, shooting becomes an initial response instead of what it used to be, a last response, only after a lot of other things went down.”
Kelley said wide community involvement is key to addressing gang-related violence.
“It takes more than just cops patrolling a beat,” he said. “It takes parents, it takes teachers, it takes activists, it takes parents looking out for others’ kids – it really takes a community,” he said.
He added later, “There has to be buyin from a lot of various aspects of the community if we’re actually going to try to slow this down.”
Rachel Wenning, chair of the Greater Hilltop Area Commission, said the Columbus police liaison officer assigned to the group has indicated that, while vehicle thefts have increased, violent crime has been more level this year compared to last.
“Obviously, we don’t want people shooting each other, but as far as a spike in shootings, there’s been more citywide than last year, but I think about the same here,” she said.
Wenning said increased spending and programming by the Columbus Division of Police haven’t been the answer for addressing violence, she said.
“We see so many millions of dollars going to the Columbus police, yet the police department is still telling us that they’re understaffed, they need more money, they need more officers, but it doesn’t lead to any reduction in crime,” Wenning said. “I think there are definitely areas that that money could be used in that would create a greater impact and lower crime, more than giving more funds to the police.”
Some community efforts have made a difference on the Hilltop, she said, citing a soccer program for kids at the Wedgewood Village Apartments that was “incredibly successful” at reducing crime. But that and other programs ceased during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
There’s also a need for funding to improve the community, including efforts to reduce illegal dump that has trash “overrunning the alleys,” Wenning said.
“When you have dirty, trash-filled alleys, it’s a place where criminals know they can hang out and do things and no one’s really looking at them. All of those things are tied together.”
Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce said be believes that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated another pandemic – the growing population of Greater Columbus residents living in poverty – and has added to youths getting into gang violence.
Add to that a growing population in Greater Columbus and the changing nature of youth violence, he said.
“We’re in a different era in terms of technology, a different era in terms of the type of weapons or guns that are available, and we’re in a different era where there’s so many electronic means of communication that can influence the tension,” he said. “… There are simply more types of guns available, easier access to guns, and the problems have gotten deeper. We still need to address issues around affordable housing, work force development, job training, the challenges in our education system.”
Addressing poverty is part of the solution, Boyce said, citing as an example the county’s formation of a pilot family stabilization unit, which is working to connect Black juveniles facing minor charges in the juvenile court system and their families with agencies providing food or medical assistance, addiction and mental health counseling, educational support and other services to help stabilize those households.
“We’re zeroing in particularly on… youth, males in particular, where there’s been some identification of a potential problem or pathway,” he said. “… We’ve got to really start to get granular about providing people and families, at an early age, with the resources to break the cycles and to be exposed to different pathways and opportunities.”
Samantha Lowe, 36, said she believes the NNCS report’s findings about the city’s violence are accurate because she lives with her young daughters near South Champion and Frebis avenues on the South Side, where she is witness to illegal activity daily.
“I hear the gunshots and see the traffic and I’m not surprised that these young people are associated with the violence,” Lowe said. “They’re getting younger and younger.”
While libraries and a nearby recreation center can help offer youths other alternatives to stay out of trouble, she noted they’re open only so long.
“What we need in this area is some kind of a center with long hours, to have computers where kids can get homework done, where we can see them and help them,” said Lowe. “Children just walking up and down the roads are going to get in trouble.”
Dispatch reporter Dean Narciso contributed to this report.
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