islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

• Archive Search

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

Rash of shootings brings out crowd of 200 to stop the violence

Comment on this | | | | | | | |

Law enforcement officials cannot stop the violence plaguing northern Beaufort County without the help of communities. That was the message from elected officials and religious and community leaders to a crowd of 200 on Sunday.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner reminded the almost entirely black crowd at a meeting of Citizens Against Violence Everywhere, or CAVE, in Burton Wells Gym that

18 people have been shot in Beaufort County since July 1. Then he pleaded for those in attendance to become active eyes and ears for law enforcement.

CAVE was formed by County Councilman Herbert Glaze of Burton in response to the recent rash of shootings in northern Beaufort County.

"We need the information you have," Tanner said. "When you start standing strong, and the community knows you won't tolerate any more crime, and if necessary, you will go to court and testify ... we'll terminate these problems."

He implored those in attendance to call the CrimeStoppers hot line and leave anonymous information to help solve crimes, saying the hot line has been highly publicized but receives less than one call a month. Tanner noted that his staff comprises about 250 people, only slightly more than the number of attendees at Sunday's meeting.

"You will have as much crime in your community as you allow," Tanner said. "Partner with law enforcement using those (CrimeStoppers) numbers as well as your God-given senses."

County administrator Gary Kubic pledged to do his part to combat violent crime by working to improve the graduation rates and jobs skills of area youths.

"I wonder how many of (the shooters) didn't complete high school. I wonder how many of them lacked a job skill to get a job," he said. "We need to find ways to find kids who no longer have faith in education and bring them back."

Kubic stressed the importance of the bi-state port planned for Jasper County, which could bring thousands of new jobs to the region. He said he would contact companies that would operate at the port to learn what skills they seek in prospective employees so programs can be created to teach those skills to Beaufort County residents, and he discussed creating new pathways to obtain a general equivalency degree.

Other speakers at Sunday's meeting included several local pastors, Beaufort County public defender Gene Hood and Beaufort County deputy coroner Ed Allen, who said 11 people have died from gunshot wounds in Beaufort County this year.

"You might say, 'They were this race or that race, they were of this income level or that income level, or they were from this neighborhood or that

neighborhood,' ... but death doesn't have any particular race, religion or age that it deals with," he said, noting that the victims were white, black, Hispanic and Asian-American and had lived in neighborhoods from Hilton Head Island to Seabrook.

Allen told the crowd each person needs to commit to taking back their community by turning people around -- and the efforts need to start at home, with the children living under their own roof.

"If everyone here will commit to putting an honest effort to turn just one person around, think about the impact it would have," Allen said.

| | | | | | |