And we thought our violent crime rate was bad.

[Kenosha]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/LOCAL/608080471

quote: Stabbing death pushes Indianapolis' toll to 91

By Vic Ryckaert and Diana Penner
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
The Marion County Sheriff's Department is investigating another homicide this morning, bringing the county's death toll to 13 victims in the last seven days.
 
 
The two deaths bring the Indianapolis and Marion County homicide toll to 91 for this year.
A 39-year-old man was found stabbed to death at a Far-Eastside apartment building at 12:40 a.m., Marion County Sheriff's Department Lt. Michael DeHart said. The victim died in an apartment bedroom.
Police are not releasing the man's name. They said they want to question a man who lives in an apartment in the 9200 block of Briergate Court.
In another homicide, Indianapolis police this morning identified the victim of last night's shooting as a teen from Indianapolis.
Destin Davidson, 17, was found in an alley in the 4700 block of Caroline and Hillside avenues at 7:35 p.m., police said.
Last night, about a half-dozen teenage boys knelt in the gravel near where Davidson was shot to death and prayed for peace, guidance and hope for the normally quiet Northside neighborhood and for the entire city.
Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson asked for an 11 percent increase in spending for public safety. Davidson, the city's 12th homicide victim since Wednesday, was killed in the Indianapolis Police Department's North District.
That's the area where saturation patrols were deployed Wednesday, targeting hot spots with additional officers. The squad cars were so thick in the area, IPD Chief Michael Spears said, two patrol cars responded within 30 to 45 seconds to the report of shots fired in the alley in the 4700 block of Caroline and Hillside avenues at 7:35 p.m.
Police were looking for a late model, blue Ford Probe with a faded, magnetic ribbon-type decal on its side. The car was seen headed north on Caroline shortly after the shooting, but police didn't know whether the driver happened to be in the area or was connected to the shooting.
"Our police department is just fed up with the violence. We're just tired of it," an exasperated Spears said. "We had officers on the scene literally within seconds."
Although the circumstances surrounding the latest slayings are not yet known, Spears said too many of the past week's homicides -- and those from throughout the year -- were rooted in complicated societal issues no amount of stepped-up patrols would solve: lack of education, lack of meaningful employment, lack of parental involvement, guns, drugs, inability to resolve conflicts with anything other than weapons.
"Certainly the police department has an important role, and we will live up to that," Spears said. "But we need help from the community."
That's what the Rev. Malachi Walker implored his group of young men to focus on. The group, Young Men Inc., wore tan T-shirts that proclaimed
"Armed and Dangerous . . . God is My Weapon." The group's main mission is to teach young men to take control of their lives and avoid the kinds of pitfalls that have led too many astray, he said.
"Too many of us have been dying! Too many of us have been going to jail!" Walker beseeched his charges, who ranged in age from 9 to 16.
The group was at the City-County Building on Monday to receive a commendation when Spears was paged to the homicide scene, Walker said.
The chief said he and other top department officers would routinely show up at homicide scenes to help resolve any logistical problems that might arise and send the message that all hands are on deck. In addition to Spears, at least a half-dozen other top cops and supervisors were at the scene along with 20 to 30 uniformed officers who were canvassing the neighborhood for possible witnesses.
Marilyn Brooks, a Hillside Avenue resident whose home backs onto the crime scene, didn't hear shots or a commotion -- until police were on the scene. After learning what had transpired, Brooks said, she was afraid to let her children, a 9-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, play outside.
"I can look out of my bedroom window and see all this stuff," she told Spears. "It scares the crap out of me."
What could she and her neighbors do? she asked the chief.
"The best thing that you and your neighbors can do is work with us," he told her.
Moments later, Walker used preacher cadence to send the same message the chief was trying to send.
"We can't give up on this thing!" he said. "We cannot give up!''