An online back fence – 24 Jul 2008 P-D

Debbie lives just a block from where it happened, but didn’t realize at the time that a 20-year-old man had been gunned down on the street the night before. “We didn’t hear a thing,” she wrote in a note on the neighborhood’s listserv, an automated e-mail distribution service.

A little before 10 o’clock Tuesday morning, Debbie got on her computer and pointed her neighbors to the STLToday.com account of what occurred right around the corner:

A 20-year-old man was shot to death last night in the Tower Grove area of St. Louis.

Police say the man was killed about 11 p.m. Monday in the 3900 block of Botanical Avenue.

The victim was identified as Zeyja Williams, 20, of the 1600 block of Maldon Lane in Dellwood. He was shot in the head, chest and back, police say. He died at the scene.

Police say witnesses heard several shots, then saw two men running. A white van sped down the alley.

We’d lived in the neighborhood from 1988 to 2001, and we moved back the week before last. But this was new: up-to-the-minute computerized crime reports from the neighbors. Forget the back fence.

A few minutes after noon, the public affairs officer from the St. Louis Police Department’s Third District weighed in on the listserv, posting his “preliminary opinion”:

I can’t verify that there was a white van seen in the area just yet, but some evidence was found that will hopefully help identify a suspect. The victim was with another person as well so we’ll see what he has to say too.

I would also add that the victim was no angel and had numerous arrests from traffic violations to burglary and weapons charges, so the victim was probably targeted.

Cops were participating, adding details and background, even a working hypothesis. It was like television. At 1:11 p.m., the officer posted this update:

My initial hunch was correct. The victim was definitely targeted for some yet unknown reason (probably drugs, money, or over a woman – the usual ridiculous reasons). I guess it’s good news that the crime was not random though gunfire in the neighborhood is intolerable no matter the reason.

Then he added his own frustrations:

The cousin who was with the victim has been utterly useless as a witness. . . . He’s ‘keeping it real’ even though he watched his own cousin get gunned down. So basically, he didn’t see anything even though he was at the scene.

There is another key witness who will be interviewed soon. He or she will no doubt make or break whether an arrest is made. A successful prosecution will be another matter if the people involved remain as uncooperative as they have to this point.

By mid-afternoon, a neighbor had received a press inquiry and was concerned. She wrote:

I just found a voice mail from the Suburban Journals – they would like our response to the shooting. . . . [W]e do not accept this behavior, and have worked hard in the past, and continue to work hard now, to end it. . . . This sort of event ruins our reputation as a good neighborhood to live in. . . . It also is lucky no innocent person was coming home at that time and got accidentally shot.

We don’t know what brought Zeyja Williams from Jennings to the Shaw neighborhood Monday night. Or what led to his violent death on a city street. We may never know.

But thanks to technology – when it’s used effectively and responsibly – the neighborhood is closer. Neighbors keep other posted in real time, quelling rumors and dispelling fears. The cop who sent messages via the listserv was candid and treated citizens as adults.

Neighborhoods with these kind of strengths don’t have to worry about their reputations.

– Eddie Roth

TEEN, 16, IS SLAIN IN GANG QUARREL – 19 Sep 1995 P-D

A youth, 16, was fatally shot Monday afternoon in a gang-related dispute with another youth in the alley of the 4000 block of De Tonty Street in the Shaw neighborhood, police said.

The victim was shot once in the buttocks. He was taken to a hospital, where he died a short time later.

Police withheld his name Monday night pending notification of family.

Witnesses told police that the youth, who had dropped out of school and belonged to a gang, had a confrontation at 3:15 p.m. with a youth from an opposing gang.

The other youth pulled a gun and fired several times at the victim.

Police have no suspects in the shooting.

SLAIN BURGLAR SUSPECTED IN SEVERAL CRIMES – 16 Jan 1995 P-D

A burglar who was fatally shot Saturday night when he invaded a home in the Compton Heights neighborhood might have been responsible for a one-man crime wave, police said Sunday.

Police identified the dead man as Rodney Easton, 27, of the 3600 block of Russell Boulevard. Authorities said he matched the description of the culprit in at least four similar and recent home-invasion robberies – two in the Shaw neighborhood and two in St. Louis County. Police say Easton also might have been the gunman who recently abducted three women in separate incidents and ordered them to withdraw money from ATM machines.

Easton’s residence is close to several of the crime sites, police noted.

Easton was recently released from prison after serving nine years for burglary.

Easton was shot about 9 p.m. Saturday when he entered a home in the 3200 block of Hawthorne Boulevard. He was wearing a mask and was armed with a small pistol.

Duane Sanderson, 46, who was in the home with his wife and their infant granddaughter, shot Easton after the intruder took money and demanded jewelry.

WORD ON THE STREET FORETOLD KILLINGS – 14 Oct 1994 P-D

Geraldine Neely had heard the rumors on the street: Her three sons would be killed before they could testify about a murder they had witnessed.

The sons weren’t worried, but Neely was, she said.

“I was afraid for them,” she said Thursday.

Hours earlier, a gunman killed two of her sons in front of her home, in the 4200 block of Castleman Avenue in the Shaw neighborhood.

Paul Neely, 18, was shot in the chest; his brother Marvel “Rico” Reed, 17, was hit in the left side.

They were killed about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, apparently by a lone gunman on foot, police say.

The third brother, Charles Reed, 20, was not there when the shooting happened.

Homicide detectives were looking Thursday evening for a 20-year-old man as a potential suspect.

“We’re not sure if the shooting was to silence witnesses or simply a continuation of a feud that began this summer between two groups of young men,” said chief of detectives Joseph Mokwa.

Police gave the following account of the feud:

It began when Charles Reed and another young man became romantically involved with the same woman.

On July 31, someone shot and wounded Reed. A few days later, a 19-year-old was shot and wounded.

On Aug. 14, a car with four men fired some 20 shots into another car carrying Keith Boyd, 22, and brothers Paul Neely, Marvel Reed and Charles Reed.

The shooting happened at the intersection of 14th Street and Lafayette Avenue; the victims drove to police headquarters for help.

Shot five times, Boyd died.

Within three days, four young men were charged with murder and other crimes. All are in jail.

Paul Neely and the two Reeds missed one grand jury appointment and were scheduled to appear again on Oct. 20, police said.

Mokwa said he does not believe the killing of Paul Neely and Marvel Reed will destroy the case against the four suspects in Boyd’s murder.

He said police were worried about further retaliation and that extra officers had been assigned to the Shaw neighborhood.

MAN WHO RUNS BIKE PROGRAM FOR YOUTHS IS SHOT – 25 Mar 1994 P-D

Roy Bohn has spent his spare time for the last six years running a program that provides bicycles and self-esteem for poor children in the Shaw neighborhood.

On Wednesday night, Bohn was walking home a volunteer from the bike program when a teen-age gunman shot and seriously wounded him for no apparent reason, police say.

Bohn and the volunteer were walking with a woman near Cleveland Avenue and 39th Street about 10:30 p.m. when two youths jogged toward them. One of the youths waved a handgun and asked twice, “Do you think this is real?” He then fired the pistol twice, striking Bohn in the left side and right leg. The volunteer was unhurt.

A police officer nearby heard the shots and drove to the scene but was unable to find the youths.

Bohn, 47, was in fair condition Thursday at an area hospital.

Bohn started the BicycleWORKS program out of his garage in 1988 and later moved it into a storefront at Thurman and Shenandoah avenues. He takes no salary from the program and pays much of the expenses himself. At BicycleWORKS, children ages 9-14 learn how to assemble and repair bicycles and earn one in the process. The children can earn credits toward a bike by working in the shop, getting good grades and performing community service.

Stephen Conway, alderman from the 8th Ward and a friend of Bohn, said, “It’s just such a tragic clash that some youth who’s gone awry would do this to Roy, when all his efforts have been focused on disadvantaged and at-risk youth. “

MAN FOUND DEAD ON CITY SIDEWALK – 9 Jan 1994 P-D

A 26-year-old man was found dead Saturday on a sidewalk in the Shaw neighborhood, about a block from his home.

Police discovered Gerald Eifert, of the 3600 block of Cleveland Avenue, bleeding from the head about 8 a.m. in the 3800 block of Cleveland.

A neighbor heard a gunshot about two hours earlier. Police hadn’t determined if Eifert was shot.

MAN FOUND SLAIN IN CAR NEAR HIS HOME – 25 Nov 1992

A man from the Shaw neighborhood was found shot to death in his car Tuesday night, authorities reported.

Ocie Wade, 45, was found slumped in his car. The car was parked near the corner of Russell Bouelvard and Klemm Avenue, about one block from Wade’s residence, police said. He had been shot twice in the head.

Investigators said neighbors heard gunshots about 9:45 p.m. and called police.

Police have no suspects or motive in the shooting.

Acquaintance Arrested In Killing Of Couple – 15 Oct 1992 P-D

A 21-year-old man was arrested Wednesday in the killing of a woman and her boyfriend Tuesday in the Shaw neighborhood while the woman’s three small children and nephew were in the next room, police said.

The bodies of Marian Elaine Jordan, 25, and Rickal ”Ricky” Edwards, 22, were found about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday by police in the bedroom of their home in the 4200 block of Russell Boulevard, near the Missouri Botanical Garden. Police believe they were killed around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Homicide Sgt. Joseph Beffa said evidence found at the scene Wednesday indicates that the killings probably were drug-related.

Beffa said police will seek warrants today charging the suspect with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action.

Beffa said the suspect had been socializing at the Russell address with the victims and several other people. The suspect remained behind after the others left and shot the victims less than 30 minutes later, Beffa said.

When police got to the apartment, the children – 8, 6, 5, and the 1-year-old nephew – let them inside. One of the children told police, ”Ricky is hurt, and we have to get ready to go to school.”