As community grieves, answers remain elusive
By Staff Reports
Published in News on August 14, 2016 10:34 AM
Less than 50 feet away from a stop sign at the intersection of Olivia Lane and Slaughter Street, there is a heart on the ground made of votive candles.
There is a purple teddy bear sitting upright, now worn by the weather.
Resting against it lies a "My ABC's" children's book, its cover furled back toward the spine from the sun and the rain beating down on it for more than 20 days now.
Surrounding the memorial is melted wax from freshly burnt candles.
"People are out here every night, burning candles and stuff for her," said Gregory Jacobs, who lives near the corner of Olivia Lane and Slaughter Street.
Jacobs is talking about 19-year-old Atiya Tijonna Maddox, who was shot and killed at the intersection of Olivia Lane and Slaughter Street on July 22 just after 1 p.m.
Her murder remains unsolved.
Though Jacobs lives near where the murder happened, he said he witnessed nothing.
"No gunshots, no nothing," Jacobs said. "My air conditioning was off and my front door was open. When I looked out the door, it was already taped off as a crime scene."
Police say they believe Ms. Maddox was shot while inside of a car, and that the car she was shot inside of was the same that took her to Wayne Memorial Hospital.
Maj. Anthony Carmon, head of the Goldsboro Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division, confirmed that there is video footage of Ms. Maddox arriving to the hospital, but the Goldsboro Police Department has not sought out to obtain that footage yet.
Instead, eyewitnesses of her arrival to the hospital are currently being interviewed.
"We'll eventually get both," Carmon said. "It's not pressing right now. We'll wait until we absolutely have to have it."
Carmon said obtaining the footage was not pressing because of the presence of eyewitnesses, but declined to say how many eyewitnesses there were.
The shot or shots fired that killed Ms. Maddox were not detected by the city's new ShotSpotter system.
Ms. Maddox was killed just after 1 p.m. July 22.
ShotSpotter went live at 7 p.m. that same day, less than six hours after Ms. Maddox was killed.
Ms. Maddox's murder is one of nine unsolved murders that has occurred in 2015 and the first eight months of 2016 in Goldsboro -- there has been 17 murders total within the city limits of Goldsboro during 2015 and 2016.
*
More than 100 American flags are stuck in the ground in front of a fence in the 400 block of East Holly Street.
There are roughly 10 stuffed animals sitting in the same area, all with varying messages of "I love you," "Love U" and one red bear that says "Heart to Heart" on its front.
These, like the ones at Ms. Maddox's memorial, are also worn by the weather.
They have been there for more than 40 days now -- the amount of time that has passed since 17-year-old Montez Lamar Wilson was shot and killed while riding his bicycle in the 400 block of East Holly Street around 2:20 a.m. July 1.
Nestled into the ground of the memorial, partially covered by overgrown grass, are several votive candles arranged in the shape of an "M" -- Wilson's, first initial.
There are cups stuck into the fence at the memorial spelling "Tez," and also arranged to depict the letter "T," an equal sign and the shape of a heart.
Wilson's murder also remains unsolved.
Carmon said he did not know where Wilson was coming from or going to, and it is "unknown" if there was a motive for Wilson's killing.
*
In downtown Goldsboro, in the 100 block of North Center Street, are several American flags and pinwheels stuck into the ground around the base of a tree in the median.
Ryan Apollo Morgan, 32, was shot and killed in the 100 block of North Center Street around 2:30 a.m. July 31.
Morgan was an active duty senior airman who joined the Air Force in 2009, was stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in 2013 and was working as a contract specialist for the 4th Contracting Squadron on SJAFB.
His murder, too, remains unsolved, though authorities say they have interviewed countless people about what occurred that morning.
"It (the number of people interviewed) continues to climb," Carmon said. "OSI (the Air Force Office of Special Investigations) is interviewing active duty airmen, and if that develops additional people to talk to, if they're military they'll do it, if not, they'll forward the information to us, and we'll follow up."
Carmon said Morgan's brother was with him the night he was killed, and has been cooperating with investigators as they look for details to further develop the case.
"He's available any time we have a question. When we want to run something by him, we'll get a hold of him," Carmon said.
Carmon confirmed there are cameras on Center Street in downtown Goldsboro, but declined to confirm if Morgan's murder had been captured by those cameras.
Authorities still do not know what led to Morgan being killed.
"As far as what led to it, I don't know, but there was some sort of confrontation between the victim and the perpetrator," Carmon said. "Don't know what precipitated the confrontation, but the result was the victim was shot."
*
The three most recent unsolved murders in July are only several of a total of nine that have left investigators with few answers and many questions about who is committing these crimes that have left the community on edge.
In addition to Ms. Maddox, Wilson and Morgan, the murders of 21-year-old Versean Jenkins, 28-year-old Julious Bryant, 25-year-old Tyron Kasheem Jones, 19-year-old Ni-Quawn Orlando Kornegay, 28-year-old Bryan O'Neil Moore and 29-year-old Marcus Montrell Mclean, which have all occurred in 2015 and 2016, also remain unsolved.
Jenkins was shot in front of Donel's Express Mart at 518 E. Elm St. on May 22, and the investigation of the case has been unfruitful.
"No new suspects or suspects at all," Carmon said. "We're still looking for the public's assistance on that. It appears that after he was shot, he didn't immediately expire. So, we are looking for people to give us information."
Carmon said authorities are still looking for "at least one" of the people that may have talked to Jenkins after he was shot.
In the fifth unsolved murder case from 2016, which happened two blocks away from the Goldsboro Police Department, Carmon said the case is a classic "whodunit."
Julious Isaiah Bryant, 27, was shot and killed at 400 S. John St. in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 7. Police discovered his body at 2:44 a.m. after being called to a report of a shooting.
"Because of the time of day it happened, there was nobody around," Carmon said. "This is a traditional whodunit, so there are very little leads to follow up on, and we are looking to the public for some assistance."
With the four unsolved murders from 2015, new details are also few and far between.
Tyron Kasheem Jones, 25, was shot and killed just before 1 a.m. Aug. 8, 2015, during a reported shoot-out between a car he was driving and another, unknown car as the two cars traveled down Edgerton Street.
Jones was mortally wounded, and was found dead in his vehicle that came to rest on the railroad tracks near the 800 block of Argo Street and Royall Avenue facing north toward Wayne Memorial Drive.
Ni-Quawn Orlando Kornegay, 19, was shot and killed in the 1900 block of South Slocumb Street on Oct. 1, 2015, around 10 p.m.
Kornegay was found by police lying on the sidewalk near The Grand at Day Circle, which is the name of the apartment complex where Kornegay lived.
Bryan O'Neil Moore, 28, was shot and killed at 700 National Drive on Nov. 9, 2015, in what police initially believed to be a robbery gone wrong.
Moore was found lying behind his house at 700 National Drive, and died from a single gunshot wound.
Marcus Montrell Mclean, 29, died at Wayne Memorial Hospital after being struck by a single gunshot Sept. 13, 2015.
Several shots were fired in the 800 block of Crawford Street, and Mclean was found lying face down in the road.
The homicide investigations into the killings of Jones, Kornegay, Moore and Mclean in 2015 remain unsolved.
Carmon said investigators repeatedly run into difficulties with cooperation of potential witnesses and people being hesitant to get involved.
"People don't want to be identified, they don't want the scrutiny, they don't want their peers to look down on them -- a whole lot of reasons," Carmon said.
Carmon said whenever the department receives leads about any murder, authorities follow up on them.
"They're still assigned, they're still on somebody's desk, pending action, so as soon as there is any additional information, we work on it," Carmon said.
Carmon said he requires investigators to keep cases open and work on them any time new developments come to light in an attempt to make headway toward solving the case.
"They're always worked on. I require them to keep the cases open, and for them, any time they get any information to work on it and to brainstorm and come up with maybe some different, out of the box ideas, to work on it," Carmon said.
Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West said the department needs the public's help in closing the unsolved murder cases, and new technologies are being utilized and looked at in an attempt to help the community feel safe.
"One of the technologies is the ShotSpotter. Can the ShotSpotter prevent a shooting? No. But it puts us on point a whole lot quicker where the shooting occurred," West said.
West said the department is looking at putting cameras in various parts of the city, and not just in the downtown area. A recently received $25,000 grant from the Governor's Crime Commission will aid the department in purchasing new technology and implementing new programs, West said.
"There are things that we're doing that require money, and we're trying to put technology in place that will help the community feel safer and help us to solve crimes," West said. "The one thing that we can't do -- you can't force people to come forward with information."
West said the Crime Stoppers program, which allows citizens to anonymously tip off police about criminal activity and provide information about unsolved investigations, is paramount in helping police solve crimes.
And, West said, if crimes are to be solved, the public must start talking to police.
"I know that some people are reluctant to talk to the police because there's not a guarantee that we can protect their identity or they feel like if they tell us then the officer is going to say something to somebody else about them coming up here, so we can work on it as far as we can with our officers, with training and just letting them know how they can interact with the community so they can build that trust so people are willing to come forward with some information, but there's not a magic pill we're going to take, and it's going to make the crime go away," West said. "The public is just as much responsible for helping to solve the crimes or deter the crimes -- it's not just the police can do everything, and we're the only ones that are able to do anything. It's going to be the community and it's going to be the citizens, and we've got barriers we've got to get over to get that trust back."