Over 30 shootings during each of the past 2 weekends in Detroit

Posted: Aug 13, 2013 5:50 PM PDTUpdated: Aug 13, 2013 5:57 PM PDTBy Amy Lange, Fox 2 News - bio | email


Detroit Police Chief James Craig

DETROIT (WJBK) -Victoria Sherrill's 19-year-old son, Larentae Hyatt, was gunned down July 29 near their home on Klinger.

"I was at home. I heard the shots and everything," she said.

It is all too common. The past two weekends have been especially bad, each with more than 30 shootings in the City of Detroit.

"We're working hard to try to reduce that number, but we have seen an increase over the last couple of weekends," said Police Chief James Craig.

Ironically while shootings are up, the chief said deadly shootings year-to-date are down. Deadly shootings stand at 207 compared to 218 last year. Non-fatal shootings are up from 736 to 747.

"We're trying to really drive that violent crime down, and that certainly doesn't suggest that we're going to ignore some of the other crimes that are more quality of life based. We want to deal with those, as well.

But right now our one focus is driving down violence," Craig said.

The chief, who has been on the job only a month, is still working on restructuring the department.

Meantime, people such as Pastor L. A. Porche with Crime Krushers are trying to help find Hyatt's killer and encouraging the community to get involved in solving and stopping crime.

"People are hurting, families are damaged, and then we have to try to help them. We can't ignore it. That's what's wrong now," Porche said.

"Saturday, we're going to be out here going door-to-door encouraging people to speak, to tell us who did it so that we can work with law enforcement to get them off the street."

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/23...nds-in-detroit