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Durham
A Bloody Weekend As community activists and educators organized mid-November cease-fire activities in the Bull City’s parks and high school theatres, shootings—including one that took the life of a child—continued in its streets. BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com
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he weekend before last, Steve Chalmers, the Bull City’s police chief from 2003 to 2007, helped organize a ceasefire, with activities taking place Saturday morning at the old Hillside Park. It was part of a community group effort in several Durham neighborhoods to kick off a day of peace at the tail end of one of the city’s deadliest years on record. Late at night the Friday before, gunfire erupted near a railroad crossing in the eastern part of town, killing a teen and wounding two other people. By early Sunday morning, police had reported another fatal shooting, of a 24-year-old man in north Durham. But in between, on a sunny late-morning Saturday, Hillside Park was buzzing with activity. A disc jockey served up old-school rhythm and blues music underneath a picnic shelter. Several food trucks in the parking lot served tacos and fish. A couple of teens tossed a Nerf football, while smaller kids jumped up and down inside a bounce house or romped in and around the playground in the middle of the park. A group of young men hung out along the park fringes. Chalmers was among a cadre of current and former elected officials, including former city council member Jackie Wagstaff, current council member DeDreana Freeman, and Durham county commission chair Brenda Howerton. The cease-fire was part of a violence prevention project that began two years ago when Chalmers, Durham County district court judge Pat Evans, and Harold Chestnut, a member of Partners Against Crime (PAC)—a city-supported, community-based volunteer organization—came together to create a new partnership, “New Durham Vision,” that’s collaborating with N.C. Central University professor Henry McKoy’s Hayti Reborn project. 6
November 24, 2021
INDYweek.com
“The group started a dialogue with individuals who are involved in gangs and gang activity to find out what’s going on, and what we could do to reduce the activity,” Chalmers told the INDY. A series of intervention strategies, including jobs, housing, education, and health care opportunities, followed. Chalmers describes the project as a “one-stop shop,” an “ecosystem” designed to reduce violent crime. The initiative focuses on older gang members who have rank in the organizations’ hierarchies. “They came up with the name ‘New Durham Vision,’” Chalmers explains of the city’s gang-involved men and women with whom the group of community leaders are in contact. Chalmers says mayor-elect Elaine O’Neal has spoken with the group, too, and affirmed addressing gun violence as one of her top priorities when she takes office next month. “[O’Neal] contacted me after she announced she was running and said she felt good about her chances,” Chalmers said. “She said the first thing she wanted to do is address violent crime.”
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n recent months, Durham leaders have pointed to local gun violence as part of a national trend that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated. With the rise in violent crime, calls nationally and locally for more police have nearly drowned out demands to defund the police following George Floyd’s murder last year. By this time in 2020, Durham police had reported a new dismal tally of 882 shootings, 291 people struck by gunfire, and a yearlong total of 37 homicides. But police say this year has been the worst on record for homicides in the Bull City, worse even than bloody 2016, which saw a total of 42 homicides. With a little
A Guns Down, Hearts Up rally in Durham in October 2020; 2021 has been an even deadlier year in the Bull City. PHOTO JADE WILSON over a month left in 2021, 43 people have already lost their lives to violence, including the child killed two Fridays ago in East Durham. During this month’s cease-fire, police detectives searched for evidence in the 1000 block of Drew Street. Neighbors reported hearing multiple gunshots overnight that had killed the child and wounded two others. Investigators used yellow caution tape to cordon off the shooting scene near the intersection of Drew and Granby Streets. A police patrol car was parked in front of the crime scene tape. A police mobile command center was parked just beyond the railroad tracks in the working-class neighborhood. Lt. Jackie Werner said it was about 11:18 p.m. Friday, when police arrived in response to reports of gunfire. The officers found two people, both wounded by gunshots, inside a vehicle. Paramedics rushed one of the victims to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Paramedics pronounced the other victim, the child whose name hasn’t been released, dead at the scene. Police found another man “nearby” who had been seriously wounded, Werner said
in a press release. He, too, was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. While detectives scoured the area for clues, a young couple who had moved into the neighborhood four months earlier worked in their modest yard. She mowed the grass. He used a weed eater to clear the high weeds that encircled a tree stump. The couple, who declined to give their names, said they were in bed when they heard gunshots on Drew Street, behind their home, at “11:30-ish.” “Ten or so,” the young man answered when asked how many gunshots he heard. Other people in the neighborhood told area news outlets they heard as many as 20 to 30 gunshots and that officers put down more than 20 evidence markers along Drew Street during their investigation. “Is it unusual in this exact location? Yes. But far away? No,” the woman mowing her grass replied when asked if gunfire was a usual occurrence in the neighborhood.
D
uring a Hillside High School performance run that began on Friday night and ended with a Sunday afternoon matinee. The performances featured a massive,
