‘Policing is not nearly enough.’ Durham mayor and police chief respond to shootings

Facing soaring shootings in Durham this year, Mayor Steve Schewel called on the community and state lawmakers Thursday to help the city fight gun violence.

“Policing itself, even excellent policing which we have, is not nearly enough,” Schewel said, the day after 100 people gathered to remember a 15-year-old boy fatally shot downtown during a drive-by shooting on Sunday.

The Police Department has taken immediate steps such as creating a centralized shooting task force and improving information sharing, Police Chief C.J. Davis said.

City officials and community members are also working on longer-term strategies to address social issues affecting crime and to prevent young people from joining gangs, she said.

“It can’t be just the police department,” Davis said. “You can’t arrest crime away.”

Much of the violence is being committed by a small number of mostly young people, she said.

Reducing the number of people in jail, in part because of COVID-19 risks, is also having an impact, Davis said.

“I know of cases where individuals have committed serious crimes and returned to the streets,” she said. “They return and commit more serious crimes.

“That is not a hypothesis,” Davis said. “That is actual reality.”

Many of the shootings in Durham this year, like the one that killed 15-year-old Anthony Adams on Sunday, have been drive-by shootings. And, she added, “Many of our drive-by shootings have been gang-related.”

“The simple challenge is being able to get the information that we need of the description of the vehicles, individuals in the vehicle as well, and what association they have with the victim or any at all,” Davis said.

Identifying suspects is difficult because victims and witnesses are not always cooperative, but Davis said she appreciates how members of the clergy have worked with the community and police to help identify shooting suspects.

‘Common-sense’ gun legislation, Medicaid expansion

Gun violence must be fought on four fronts, Schewel said, with:

▪ effective policing

▪ community resources like after-school care, mental health care and drug treatment.

▪ legislative action including Medicaid expansion and “common-sense” gun legislation, like a law that would allow for the temporary removal of guns from people at risk of harming themselves or others.

▪ programs that attack violent crime at the root causes.

Schewel said efforts such as increasing officer visibility, monitoring social media for gang activity and centralizing the investigative unit, which was previously divided by the city’s five police districts, have helped improve policing.

Schewel said another solution is violence interrupters, like Bull City United, a county-run team whose members try to prevent violence and retaliation after shootings. Some neighborhood leaders, however, have questioned the team’s effectiveness, The News & Observer reported.

People shot in Durham up 72%; Raleigh also sees increase

As of Saturday, 274 people had been shot in Durham this year, according to statistics police provided upon a public information request from The N&O. Twenty-four of those people were killed.

The number of people shot is up nearly 72% from the same time last year, when 159 people had been shot in the Bull City.

In Raleigh, as of Oct. 1, there had been 73 shooting victims, compared to 65 shooting victims at the same time last year, data from the Raleigh Police Department shows. That is an increase of just over 12%.

This year’s non-domestic firearm assaults in Durham — which includes non fatal shootings and incidents where a gun is displayed but not fired — have now surpassed the total number reported in the city in all of 2019 or all of 2018, the last year available on the Durham Police Department’s online statistics page.

Staff writer Virginia Bridges contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 12:24 PM.