Chief: Victims will not speak
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 24, 2014 1:46 PM
A Goldsboro man refused to cooperate with police after being shot several times while walking in the street late Tuesday -- something Goldsboro Police Chief Jeff Stewart said is happening all too often.
It is exactly that lack of cooperation that is preventing police from solving violent crimes in the area, Stewart said.
"I might have to go out there myself, at night, and talk to the residents," he said.
Shawntanna Lemarus Thompson, 26, of South Best Street, told Goldsboro police he was talking on the phone while walking in the 700 block of Devereaux Street when he heard gunshots, Maj. Al King said.
"He then realized he'd been shot," King said.
According to the report, Thompson was shot once in the right buttock, once in the left leg and grazed on the left arm.
"He did not want to talk to the police and he did not want police to pursue anything," King said.
King and the rest of the GPD command staff met with Stewart this morning to discuss the ongoing issue of violence in the Devereaux and South Slocumb Street areas.
Tuesday's shooting marks the third violent attack GPD has investigated on Devereaux Street this month, beginning with a man dying after being shot.
Jayquan Devon Crawford, 20, of Franklin Street, died Sept. 1 in the 600 block of Devereaux Street after he was shot outside a residence at 10:55 p.m.
In another incident, this one taking place Saturday at 1 a.m., Lintwian Eugene Bizzell, 32, was stabbed when attacked by three or four black men while walking in the 900 block of Devereaux Street.
Bizzell proved uncooperative when interviewed by GPD at Wayne Memorial Hospital.
Stewart said there have been no suspects identified in any of the three recent cases because of such a lack of cooperation from the victims.
"It's some kind of retaliation or something," he said.
He said there is a rise in traffic in the area among 25- to 30-year-olds, the same demographic he says continually refuses to cooperate with police investigations.
"I don't know what it is, but they just won't talk to us," he said.
The Police Department will be stepping up patrols in the area and will begin deploying its mobile command unit -- a converted SWAT van that acts as a mobile office -- into the area at random intervals.
"We're going to be spending a lot more time in the area and trying to figure out what is going on, why there is that traffic out there," Stewart said.