More on Yesterday's Shooting

This is a continuation of my last blog about a shooting that occurred here last night.
http://myhudhouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/shots-fired-man-down-august-6-2008.html
See map at end of this post for reference.

When I stepped out front, almost immediately I spotted a man in the empty lot. I can not say exactly where he was coming from, as it might have taken a few seconds for me to spot him. I think it is important to note though that this individual was more than halfway into the lot (from the front) when I first spotted him. He ran to the southwest, down Caroline Street, and out of sight. I noticed one of my neighbors had turned on his exterior lights, and was outside talking on the phone. He was moving about a bit frantically, so I assumed that the shooting had occurred close to his house and that he was calling the police.

Although I was armed, I had neglected to grab my wallet (with I.D. and gun permit) on the way out. Since the police would probably soon be arriving I stepped inside the house for just a few seconds to retrieve my wallet. When I came back out, three individuals were getting into a car that was parked on Suttenfield Street, just east of Caroline Street. One of these people appeared to be the same one who I had just seen fleeing on foot. The car turned south on Caroline Street and sped away.

As I was standing out in front of my house, Jesse and Max approached from the south and asked me what was going on. I really don’t think they had anything to do with it as they would have had to run hard and fast to have circled around and came back from the other direction. Although both these guys are young and fast, they gave no appearance of having been out for a jog lately. They started talking on their cell phones and headed back to the south.

I would estimate it took less than five minutes from the time I heard the shots fired until the police began arriving. I flagged down the first officer that passed my house and gave him the basic information. He quickly drove to Caroline Street, then returned to speak with me more after other police vehicles began patrolling the area. Although the streets in front of my house were covered with police vehicles, for about ten minutes or so they all where either where the victim was found, searching the empty lot across the street, or looking for or at something around the corner on Caroline Street.

I looked a little to the south of my house and saw a large group of people (seven or eight?) standing on the sidewalk. They did not seem any different than the other people who were standing outside watching, and in fact, I thought that they were just a group of kids. Suddenly, a group of three or four officers came from Caroline Street and started walking very quickly towards my corner. I looked to the south and saw that an unmarked police car had stopped in the middle of the road just a few yards south of where the group of kids were standing.

As the three officers rushed past me and headed south towards the group on the sidewalk, a uniformed officer stepped out of the parked vehicle and drew his weapon on them. The other three officers quickly descended upon the group, who were all now lying face-down on the ground, and began handcuffing them. When I first witnessed this, it disturbed me a bit because I couldn’t understand why the police would be so interested in a group of people who were so young and who were so far away from the area. However, as I looked closer I realized that both Jesse and Max were in this group. Although they have both been extremely low-key lately, they are well known to the police. A couple of the girls who were standing with them did appear to be very young, but I guess that when you hang with the players you mark yourself as one also.

I had actually mentioned to one officer the fact that I had seen Jesse and Max here just a few minutes after the shooting. It is very likely that my mentioning there names in this regard was what prompted the police to attend to them. Ironically, I had only mentioned this so that the police wouldn’t waste their time with them, as it did not appear that they had anything to do with the shooting. But when somebody is shot, I guess it’s best to lock things down at first then sort out the details later.

The police began taping off the area, including the house where the victim was found, the empty lot where the person was fleeing through, and south on Caroline Street past the alley. Although they had a large area to cover, they did it quickly and seemed to be trying hard not to unnecessarily block any vehicles or access to people’s homes. Just out of curiosity, I wonder how much that stuff costs. They used a few hundred yards here last night, and seeing as how Fort Wayne has had so many murders and other shootings this year it has to add up. I sure hope we’re buying generic instead of name brand.

Anyway, I looked over and saw Jim, one of my neighbors who lives north of my house but south of where the victim was found. Jim said the shots sounded to have come from the side of his house, rather than from behind. This changed my perception of the situation a bit. At first, I had assumed that the shooting took place on or very near the porch where the victim was found. The position where I saw the person in the empty lot and the direction in which he ran combined to make me assume that he was the likely shooter. But now I’m not so sure.

Jim said the shots sounded to have come from the east of his house, which would be the empty lot. But the JG on-line story said that police believe he may have been shot on Suttenfield Street, then ran to the porch where he collapsed. If the man was shot in the middle or back end of the lot, and if the person who I saw fleeing was in fact the shooter, then what I observed makes sense. But if the shooting took place in the front part of the lot or actually on Suttenfield, then there is a problems with this scenario.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense that the shooter would start to run north, then change his mind and come back the other direction. Yet that is what would have happened if the shooting took place up front, and if the man I saw in the middle/back area of the lot was the shooter. Now perhaps the first shot(s) were fired near the front of the lot and the shooter began pursuing the victim as he ran to the north. But if he was doing this, then he probably would have still been firing at him, which means there would have been shell casings at the back of the lot.

I know that when I first saw this person in the empty lot, he was at least mid-way to the back of the lot. And I am pretty sure that if the victim had been on the lot at that time (especially the front part of it) I would have seen him as well. So if all of the bullet casings were found in the front of the lot, near Suttenfield Street, this might very well mean that the person I saw fleeing was not the shooter.

I know that running from the scene of a crime is almost seen by some as an indication of guilt, but that is not necessarily the case. There are a lot of people here who, for a variety of reasons, don’t want to be around when the police arrive. Perhaps that person has a warrant out for something, or maybe he just thought that being here when the police arrive might actually make him look guilty. I guess all that I’m saying is that a person fleeing from the scene does not necessarily make them guilty of that crime and maybe the guy that I saw running was just trying to avoid the police or getting shot himself.

Thoughts on the Media

I already mentioned that I spoke with two local newspaper reporters the night of the shooting. As many of you might have picked up on already, I hold a large amount of animosity towards Fort Wayne’s (lack of) local news media. I won’t go into detail on that subject now, but I just want to say that like all studies, the macroscopic view is not always completely accurate. As a general rule, I think there are a lot of very serious deficiencies among the various members of our local media. But of course this does not mean that all of them are bad or even that any one of them is completely bad.

My story was mentioned by Abby Slutsky (Journal Gazette) immediately after my house was Molotoved in October 2006. And Frank Grey (Journal Gazette) did a very well written and comprehensive (on one aspect of the situation) story about a week later. Most recently, Michael Summers (Fort Wayne Reader) did a story covering my neighborhood and my blog. All of this is great, and I think these articles have been very useful in helping others to understand what is going on here in the heart of their city. And our local media does do a lot of great reporting sometimes. But there is also a lot missing.

I will write in greater detail about this as my blog progresses, but at this time I will simply summarize by saying that I have learned from personal experience that there is a lot that our local media misses. Some of this is probably due to ignorance, and that is at least partially excusable as no one can be expected to know what is happening everywhere all of the time. But some of it has been by design. I know that I have brought specific details of what is going on here to several members of our local media, and they chose to dismiss it. I my opinion, this irresponsible behavior is in part to blame for an exacerbation of the situation.

That being said, I always look forward to meeting any members of the local media. The two who spoke with me last night (Abby Slutsky & Adam Goodenow) seemed very interested in talking to the residents here, including myself. Also, I mentioned on the previous post how impressed I was with one of these reporter’s attention to the details here. I realize that my block is not the only place where drugs are sold and people are shot, so maybe our local media really is failing to understand what is really happening here. There really is a big story here - right in this little two square blocks. Hopefully, my having met these two reporters might eventually lead to such a story coming out.

So far, I have read three stories on this event - both the J.G. and N.S. newspapers as well as the J.G. on-line article. From these articles I noticed that not only was I not alone in speaking with the police and media, but at least two other residents here gave their names for publication. The NS article confirmed my suspicions about who had called the police that night. The J.G. on-line story said that two men were being taken into custody at the police station. When I first read this, I assumed it was Max and Jesse, but Max’s mother said he was not taken in.

You might notice a slight discrepancy though between the N.S. and J.G. articles in one regard. While the J.G. listed my name as being the witness who saw the man fleeing, the N.S. gave a similar story but attributed it to an unnamed woman. Now it might be that there actually was another witness that spoke with Evan Goodenow, but I also gave him my story so I assume his quote was a transmutation of this. The explanation for that difference is as follows.

When Abby Slutsky first arrived, the shooting had just taken place. My adrenaline was still pumping hard and I was ready for anything that might happen. When she spoke with me, she actually offered to print my name anonymously, but I declined this offer. At that moment, I was all fired up and I didn’t care who knew I was talking or what I was saying. On the other hand, it was well into the morning before Evan Goodenow spoke with me. By this time my adrenaline had faded and I was becoming tired and fatigued.

Also by this time, several of the “bosses” (the older guys who help to coordinate activities here) had gathered just behind my house. They were of course trying to find out who got shot and which of their associates were being questioned or arrested, but I am also quite certain that they pay close attention to which residents are speaking with the media and police as well as what is being said. So it was probably the fatigue as well as knowing I was being watched that led me to accept Goodenow’s offer of anonymity. Of course this was pointless, as I had already spoken on the record, but it was more of a subconscious decision based on the factors going on at that time. If he hadn’t offered the anonymity, I probably wouldn’t have specifically requested it, but when offered, a quick “yes” was the natural response.

The next morning (Thursday Aug 7), New Center 15 showed up here for their noon telecast. It was really funny to see how quickly the area cleared out at that time. On of my neighbors came out on her porch, but quickly turned and went back inside when she saw the camera. Of course she was in a bathrobe and had her hair in curlers, so it might have just been that fact that caused her to be shy. Of course there was one guy I know here who ducked behind a tree about a half block from the camera. Somehow I don’t think his shyness was related to how he was dressed or what he was wearing. There did not appear to be anyone else outside (besides myself) until the news van left the area.

Thoughts on the Police

I was still outside around two in the morning, waiting for the officer who I had first spoken with to come back and get my personal information for his report. Although there were a lot of police still in the area, things had quieted down a bit. Two officers were standing in the road in front of my house and I overheard them talking about the work I had been doing here. I looked their way and one of them asked me a question about my siding. Officer Adams and I spoke for a few minutes about my house and a barn he plans to build, then we turned towards the more serious matters.

I think it started when he asked “how are things going here lately” or something like that. I paused and let out a sigh before answering because such a question is never easy to answer. First of all, events here are too sporadic to allow for easy summarization. As soon as I say it’s a good day, for this neighborhood, something bad seems to happen. But the fact that I was speaking with a police officer further complicates the matter. Suppose I take the optimistic approach, telling him that things have quieted down a bit since the previous shooting (about two weeks ago) and that I appreciate all that they (FWPD) have been doing to help out here.

Well that’s great, if this happens to be a good cop I am speaking with. He’ll probably be thinking that since things are getting better, they need to keep doing more of whatever it is they have been doing recently. In addition, if I talk respectfully to him and show at least some understanding for the difficulties that they face in trying to work in this neighborhood, he’ll probably be more appreciative of my comments. This is the kind of attitude from a citizen that will make a good cop glad that he is helping out and is probably likely to make him view talking with such a person as being beneficial to both parties.

But suppose that I happened to be speaking with a bad cop, one of those who either forgets or just doesn’t care that there are a lot of innocent victims here - people who he has sworn to serve and protect. If I tell him things are going good, then he’s likely to think “Thank God, now I can go home and just forget about this place.” Such an officer will use such optimistic comments to justify relaxing his patrols here, which of course is one of the very things that helps to make things bad again.

Then again, if I focus on the bad and give a more pessimistic account, that can cause problems also. The bad cop will just use this as an additional excuse to not give a damn about an area that he has already written off. The good cop will probably be confused. He knows that his department is doing a lot down here, and it doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t be able to see the changes this has brought. So if all I do is complain, I will probably be classified as someone who is not being realistic about the situation here and is therefore not worth wasting much time trying to communicate with.

I suppose a completely accurate answer would be to first ask what day and what hour he was referring to, since activities here are so erratic. Then, if I wanted to give a comprehensive answer, one that tells both the good and the bad from all the various angles, I would simply tell him to read my blog. But no one has time for that, so Officer Adams and I just talked about a few select events that we both recalled here.

He mentioned the time one of the major players here was found with illegal drugs in his car, and expressed his frustration over not being able to obtain a conviction on that. I explained to him that I could recall that event in detail, including the arresting officer and what car the guy was driving) as I had witnessed it from my back porch. Officer Adams pointed out how many houses his department has shut down here over the years, then expressed frustration over the realization that the guys who were operating there just move to another house on the block.

While expressing my appreciation for their efforts in this regard, I pointed out the irony that by shutting down drug houses, this sometimes makes the activities on the streets flare up even more. Officer Adams summed things up well when he said that what they (drug dealers) want is chaos. They want a neighborhood where the residents are too confused to know what is going on or too scared to talk with the police about it. I think that this officer and I share the same basic goal, but the steps that must be taken to get there have very different affects upon us as residents or police officers.

I explained to Officer Adams my opinion that sometimes certain officers are too aggressive towards even the law abiding residents here. I mentioned myself as well as others here that have been frustrated on this account many times before. I also explained how after one elder gentleman here had been told by a friend that the dealers were using his car to hide their stash in he stayed up watching out the window with his shotgun in hand that evening., rather than calling FWPD I explained how that man had an encounter with an officer prior to this and that it was so mishandled that it caused him to completely lose confidence in FWPD’s desire or ability to enforce the law here. I tried to make the point that I have so many times before, which is that a lot of the lack of communication between police and residents is to be blamed on FWPD.

Surprisingly, rather than making excuses or trying to hedge his reply by saying “Well, I’d really have to be there to know what happened” he just said flat out “Well, that’s wrong, and nothing like that should ever happen.” He went on to say that he knows there are some officers in the department who really don’t care. This is just a job to them. Officer Adams then told me a bit about his service with FWPD, including some of the operations he has been involved in over the years. His enthusiasm for getting criminals off the street and helping to make the area better for residents such as myself quickly became apparent from listening to him for a short while. Obviously Officer Adams is one of the good cops and I think the time we spent getting to know each other will probably turn out to be beneficial to both of us.

As I said, Officer Adams didn’t even try to make any excuses over possible police misconduct. In fact, I actually made an attempt to defend some of these actions. I told him I understand how stressful this neighborhood is and I understood that this is bound to affect people’s attitude and behavior to some degree. I told him that I know that I have acted out of line before, and that it was caused by the stresses of this neighborhood. As an example, I mentioned the time a month or so back when I was standing on the sidewalk shouting obscenities at a passing patrol car. Officer Adams had a somewhat of a perplexed look on his face, asking why I had done that.

I gave him a brief explanation of what had occurred then summarized by saying that when I call FWPD to report information that might be related to the murder of a two year old child, and basically get ignored, it gets me pretty riled up. I told him that being constantly ignored by the department that is supposed to be ensuring public safety, the same department that constantly blames the citizens for not being more communicative with them, causes a lot of frustration. As I was recalling this event, the other officer who was in the area said “Yeah, that was me.” Officer Hull introduced himself and we talked for a minute about that event. Overall, I think that meeting with these officers was very productive.

First, that’s two more officers who know that mine is not a drug house. But also, I think it’s good that they see the different sides of me. If their only encounters with me are when I am shouting obscenities at them, they will probably see me as someone who just wants to cause trouble for them. And if they only see me when I am spray painting obscene messages towards the drug dealers on the side of my house, they will think that I am actually trying to provoke them. Depending on which specific actions of mine that someone observes, they could easily conclude that I am idiotic, brave, cowardly, stupid, ignorant, rational, or irrational. The reality is that I am probably all of these things, depending on what is happening here and other events going on in my own life.

By seeing me in these different modes, they may be able to get a better understanding of this neighborhood. I think that when an officer is first greeted by a person who seems hostile towards them, they go into defense mode. And when this happens, real communication is usually shut down. Perhaps the next time a man approaches them screaming and shouting they might think of me. They might realize that his behavior is more a product of the environment here, rather than meant as a personal attack. This might cause them to be just a little less defensive, and that might be enough to allow the person to calm down a bit. And as a result, better communication between them might result.

Overall, what still surprises me most is that it appears that most FWPD officers had no idea who I was until my house was attacked in October of 2006. I mentioned to Officers Adams and Hull that not only have I lived here since 1995, but that in the summer of 2003, I actually had a member of FWPD Command staff (Officer Marshall) spend over half an hour setting on my front porch to discuss the situation. I told him I find it troubling that this officer apparently never bothered to mention this to his fellow officers. It seems to me that long after I had tried to reach out to FWPD, they still had my home classified as either an abandoned house or a drug house, but not as the home of a concerned citizen.

When I mentioned this event, Officer Adams had a concerned look on his face and asked who this officer was. I started to say the name, but then paused for a moment. I told him that naming this officer would likely cause some concern, perhaps even dissent, within the ranks of FWPD and that is not my goal. My goal is to meet as many officers as possible, find out who the good ones are, and let them know that I am on their side. I feel confident that the time I spent talking with Officers Adams and Hull recently has worked towards this end.

Yellow line indicates area that was cordoned off by police.

Red box indicates house where victim was found on front porch.

Blue Circle indicates area where I first spotted the person who was running from the scene.

Blue arrows indicate direction this person was running.

Black box indicates location of car that this person got into.

Black arrows indicate direction this car traveled as it left the scene.

Orange circle indicates where large group of people were standing when detained by the police.

Purple box indicates unmarked police car parked in the street.

Green box indicates My HUD House.