Crime & Safety

Residents, Police Reflect On a Violent Saturday

There were two separate shootings Jan. 28 in unincorporated Stone Mountain, but police say overall, crime has declined over the past year.

Some residents of unincorporated Stone Mountain are still reeling after two separate shooting incidents this past Saturday sent four people to the hospital and left one man dead.

But police say the recent, isolated violence doesn't paint the whole picture - that, in fact, overall crime has declined significantly during the past year.

The first shooting, which happened early Saturday morning outside the night club inside the establishment, police say. Four people, including two bystanders, went to local hospitals. There have been no arrests made in that shooting.

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In the second, domestic-related case Saturday evening, police say one man was killed during an "altercation" on Summit Lake Drive. A suspect is in custody in that incident.

The investigations are ongoing in both incidents, police say.

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"I don't understand why people would resort to shooting and killing people over nothing. I don't undertand the mentality of that and I haven't had a chance to speak to the police about this," said Jan Dunaway, a resident and a long-time member of the grassroots community organization PRISM.

Dunaway said she heard rapid-fire shots around the same time that incident occurred.

"Shortly thereafter, the helicopter was flying," she said. "I'm still rather surprised that I heard it so clearly. It was rapid fire. I have to assume that's what it was."

State Rep. Michele Henson, who is a founding member of PRISM, which stands for Pride Rings in Stone Mountain, said, "I think it's absolutely tragic. I think it's a shame. It's certainly not what we want for our neighborhoods at all."

PRISM was formed in 1994 to "inform, support and serve" those in its community of Memorial Drive, from Avondale to the Stone Mountain Freeway. The group came together after pastor D.H Shelnutt of St. Timothy United Methodist Church "asked his congregation whether the community would unify or be ripped apart by crime and fear," PRISM's website reads.

Henry Louis Adams is a DeKalb County resident who has spoken out about crime, including celebratory gunfire, and lives in the S. Hairston-Redan Road corridor. He'd like to see more a police presence in the area, and not just in speed traps.

"That's good and that’s revenue, but we need to be trying to get these criminals," Adams said.

From a man's body found Jan. 22 in the Martin's Crossing subdivision; to a drive-by shooting in which a man was killed last October, to celebratory gunfire to Saturday's shootings, Adams said, "People just don’t care. We have come to the place in DeKalb County where we have to have an intervention."

"All these guns can’t be registered with the county, that’s the problem. Now we have drive-by shootings. I don’t know when this thing is going to stop."

Overall Crime Drop

Saturday's shootings came in the midst of a welcome trend of late -- an actual drop in crime.

"Serious crime has not been as bad, probably in the last three months," Dunaway said. "There's still some crime out there. We'd had a lot of pedestrian robberies and even those had declined."

Police say those falling numbers reflect the bigger picture in the Tucker precinct's area, which goes roughly from Chamblee-Tucker Road to Covington and Glenwood, over to Panola and Covington and stretching to Brockett Road.  Several types of crimes have declined from January 2011 through January 2012, said Major B.C. Harris, precinct commander:

  • Pedestrian robberies down 55 percent;
  • Aggravated assault down 18 percent;
  • Business robberies down 83 percent;
  • Residential robberies down 25 percent;
  • Residential burglaries, down 18 percent;
  • Business burglaries, down 69 percent.

Neighborhood watches can do much to reduce some kinds of activity, such as property crimes, Harris said. He and others stress the importance of being vigilant.

"I think neighborhood watch groups are absolutely essential, reporting to police when you begin to see something suspeicious report it. If you're seeing something and feeling something's not right, alert the police," Henson said.

But in some cases, there is little prevention that can be done.

"A neighborhood watch at a night club at four in the morning is not going to do a lot of good," Harris said.

Adams said combatting crime more effectively will come from a concerted effort between citizens, police and code enforcement.

"I’d like to see the area come up," Adams said.


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