A series of shootings has Springfield officials scrambling for answers

A series of shootings across the city, including the killing of a teenager, prompted several Springfield City Council members to speak out recently about how to deal with gun violence.

Springfield Police Chief Ken Scarlett acknowledged that while officers have seized more than 860 illegal firearms in the past year and a half, several factors may be working against law enforcement in making the city safer.

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“It’s a city issue,” said Ward 8 Ald. Erin Conley on Violence, at Meeting of the city council on October 15. “I’ve seen the sense of security (that people sought after moving to Springfield) erode lately, and I find that troubling because it’s a beautiful city.

“I think we need to have these conversations so that everyone in the community knows what’s going on in the city and that we don’t have to pretend it’s just one part of the city. This is an issue we all need to be aware of as we move in the same direction of reducing gun violence in the city.”

The 400 block of South Illinois Street, where a fatal shooting occurred on Sept. 29, used to be in the Conley Ward. The teenager who was shot in the Casey’s General Store in the 1100 block of West Jefferson Street on Oct. 8 is a member of her ward.

Scarlett said he saw more of a “mobile component” to the shooting, where multiple shots were fired from vehicles at the victims.

This included a shooting in Casey where two teenagers were struck by gunfire.

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Antoine Williams was found On October 13, in the area of 17th and Cook streets, DPD officers in the front seat of a car with multiple gunshot wounds.

Ventellis B. Cooper is charged with three counts of first degree murder and two other counts in the case.

Scarlett is upset that sometimes “career criminals” are not detained under the Pretrial Fairness Act and commit other crimes when they are released.

Scarlett told The State Journal-Register that while he generally supports the law, “I would ask the state Legislature to amend (the law) to give judges more discretion in prosecuting career criminals.”

Closing in Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center Since Sept. 30, 2023, when 17-year-old Camren Darden was shot and killed by an SPD officer responding to an active shooter alert, some teenagers, including those arrested with firearms, Scarlett said, have been released to their parents. or guardians to return home.

“I think it sets a terrible precedent and sends a bad message about what we as citizens expect from the community,” Scarlett told the council.

“The key to gun violence,” said Ward 2 Ald. Shawna Gregory, is that “we continue to address the deep problems of poverty, the deep problems of generational trauma and the trauma that occurs when family members are shot and killed or go to prison.

“There is an intractable problem in these situations that just perpetuates the cycle of violence between young people.”

Daiquan Wiley, 17, was shot and killed at a home in the 1800 block of South 11^thousand August 4 Street. House in Grigory ward.

Two teenagers, 17-year-old Larrion Taylor and a 15-year-old, have been charged with first-degree murder.

What’s especially heartening for Gregory is that some groups that invest in youth are falling short.

“Sometimes politics gets in the way,” Gregory said, “and we don’t want to do what the community tells us (to do).”

Scarlett said law enforcement has a “community service aspect of (officers) interacting with youth in the community,” but that requires other partners in the community — organizations, faith groups, school districts.

“We’re all in it for the same reason, which is to give minors an outlet to make sure they’re making the right decisions when it comes to their lifestyle,” he said.

Gregory said, however, that he doesn’t want to put the recent wave “on young people (where others have been involved). Adults should know better than they do.”

Contact Stephen Speary: 217-622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.