Law enforcement officers are pleading with Savannah residents to speak out now more than ever after four separate shootings injured eight people, including a 12-year-old boy, in a 15-hour period Friday and Saturday — but they also stress that more resources to combat crime are on the way.
“The police department is appealing to anyone who might have information that will help put a stop to this violence, to please contact us or CrimeStoppers,” Assistant Police Chief Julie Tolbert said. “We are losing far too many of our young people to death or to prison. It really does not have to end up this way, so please let us help you settle your differences in a sensible way.
“I am very disappointed in the conduct of the persons committing these acts of violence. The men and women of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department are asking these individuals to seek other ways of settling their differences besides gun violence.”
Friday night
Police received reports about 11 p.m. Friday that a 24-year-old man had been shot on the 500 block of West 39th Street near Burroughs Street, said Michelle Gavin, police spokeswoman. The man was found lying between two abandoned houses. He was transported to the hospital where he is listed in critical condition, Gavin said. Police had just investigated a shooting that killed a 17-year-old male at the same intersection two days earlier.
Around the same time, three miles away, just south of DeRenne Avenue, at the 200 block of Hampstead Avenue, police responded to another shooting that left a 12-year-old boy in critical condition.
“Death is permanent and negatively impacts the lives of those left behind to grieve the loss of their loved one. We all suffer as a result of this,” Tolbert said. “The 12-year-old young man that was shot last night is just another example of how critical the gun violence in our community has gotten.”
Saturday morning, afternoon
A few hours later, shots were reported at a downtown club on West Bay Street.
Police responded around 2 a.m. Saturday inside Club Rain, Gavin said. No one was hurt inside the club, but an altercation took place minutes later between two parties inside the nearby Whitaker Street Parking Garage. The argument escalated into a gun battle that injured four people, Gavin said.
The victims were located in various places inside and around the parking garage, and none of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.
Three of the four men shot were involved in the altercation.
The fourth man, a 30-year-old from Parris Island, S.C., was shot in the hip while inside his vehicle as he attempted to leave the parking garage.
Police believe two shooters were involved in the early morning incident. They arrested Christopher Jones, 29, of Savannah and are still looking for the second shooter, Gavin said.
And just 15 hours after shots were heard on Burroughs Street on Friday night, another shooting at the Frazier Homes complex on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard sent two more to the hospital.
Police responded to the intersection of MLK Boulevard and Henry Street around 2:15 p.m. and found one male suffering from a gunshot wound at Frazier Homes, said Eunicia Baker, police spokeswoman. The man is in critical condition at the hospital, Baker said.
Police found a second man believed to be involved in the shooting near the intersection of U.S. 80 and Alfred Street, Baker said. Officials say he is in serious condition.
Investigators believe a car wreck near the intersection of May Street and Emerald Street could be linked to the shooting, Baker said.
All four incidents are still under investigation.
Aftermath and solutions
A few hours after the shootings, a community group took to the streets to protest against the increase in violence. Members of the Facebook Group Savannah Lives Matter marched from Forsyth Park to City Hall on Bay Street to draw attention to the 57 homicides and more than 200 shootings so far this year in Savannah.
Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin said the department is working hard to catch the violent offenders, but he said ending the city’s increasing violence will require a collaborative effort between residents and police.
“The majority of the despicable violence we experienced in the last 24 hours involved ‘groups,’” Lumpkin said. “Our hard-working men and women have made some arrests including an arrest for a murder that occurred earlier in this week as well as at least one of the gunman from (Saturday morning’s) shooting that left four shot. We will make other arrests.
“But as a community and the police, we, in a shared responsibility mode, must get in front of these crimes and prevent them. We must have citizens that know something say something before the bullets are fired and after the bullets are fired. Our criminal and administrative systems must also hold the perpetrators accountable as well as any facilitators of violence whether they be individuals, groups, businesses, property owners, etc.”
An increase in police resources is expected soon to help combat the increase in crime.
Lumpkin has authorized overtime usage for officers to keep as many units on the streets as possible, Tolbert said.
The City Council also recently passed a budget that includes a $75 million investment in police operations, said Bret Bell, city spokesman.
The budget will add 15 officers to tackle street-level drug crimes, help install a major pay scale increase and aid in intense marketing to cut the police department’s officer vacancy rate in half, Bell said.
“We have created a new civilian Ambassador program to put more eyes and ears on the street downtown,” he said. “That program will expand and work closely with police, as we move forward in 2016. Police have launched the End Gun Violence initiative to target those most likely to commit a gun-related crime. Public safety remains the primary focus and top priority of City Council and all city operations.”
CALL CRIMESTOPPERS
Anyone with information on either case should call CrimeStoppers at 912-234-2020 or text CRIMES (274637) using the keyword CSTOP2020. Tipsters remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.
A confidential tip line also is open directly to investigators at 912-525-3124.