DURHAM - Durham District Court Judge Craig B. Brown used Laurence Alvin Lovette's first court appearance on murder and other charges to call on state leaders to fight against gangs.

Anti-gang legislation has already passed the N.C. House and could reach the Senate when the legislature reconvenes May 13. Brown wants quicker action.

"We absolutely, positively need to have anti-gang legislation passed by the General Assembly," Brown said. "I respectfully and sincerely ask the governor to call a special session of the legislature."

A spokesman for Gov. Mike Easley said the legislation was already in motion and said passage would be up to the legislature.

Bill Holmes, a spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney, said the House-approved measure would make it a felony to "participate in a pattern of criminal street gang activity," to act as an organizer of gang activity or to encourage or coerce anyone to participate in gang activity.

Authorities have not said whether Lovette, who was from Durham, was a member of a gang. Chapel Hill police say a bank security photograph shows him wearing a vintage Houston Astros ball cap, which could be a gang symbol.

As for the other suspect, Demario Atwater, a court document outlining the terms of his 2005 probation requires him "not to engage in gang activity or associate with any known gang members."

Jose Lopez, Durham's police chief, said his city fights gangs every day. But he played down any mention of them in connection with the two homicides.

"At this point, I'm looking at two young men who killed two people," Lopez said. "Don't go off on gangs. This is about two young men and what they did. Don't cloud the issue."

Special committees in both the House and Senate are studying gang issues and plan to issue interim reports by May 1.

A spokesman for Senate leader Marc Basnight said last year's state budget included funding for gang-prevention grants, modernizing court system technology, and hiring 77 assistant district attorneys, investigators and legal assistants.

Brown also scolded news outlets for not giving black crime victims enough attention.

"It is curious to me that because the victim in one of these cases was such an amazing young lady -- I'm told she was white -- that the media has taken so much attention, but I guess I'm not surprised," said Brown, who is blind. "But I also wonder, when there's so many black victims to crimes, why that is not necessarily the case."

(Staff writers Anne Blythe and Sarah Ovaska contributed to this report.)

Eve Carson

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