Missed Direction

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Local Feature: Missed Direction

Missed Direction

There are stories behind every call, every arrest — every funeral.

In some parts of the city, residents are worried, not only about the increase in reports of drug trafficking and thefts in their neighborhoods, but about the number of times they read about a young life ended much too soon.

Law enforcement personnel answer the calls, but they don’t have the solution.

Neither do the prosecutors, who are faced with the same names, the same issues, the same unsolved mysteries.

So that leaves a problem that has many manifestations and many causes and effects, but no clear path forward.

This is the conundrum of violence.

And this is just a portion of its story.

Missed Direction: Craig Doubt's story

It has been nearly five years since Goldsboro police found Craig Doubt III lying behind a home on East Maple Street -- a victim of a gunshot wound to the back of the head. And while his killer never faced...

Missed Direction: The other victims

A little boy crawls into bed with his mother and wipes tears from her eyes. It has been more than 20 years, but Leigh Monroe can still feel her 2-year-old son's fingers running through her hair. "He would say,...

Missed Direction: Murders in Goldsboro since 2012

* Brandon Phillips, 37, shot on Wayne Avenue in April 2012. * Khyrie Roberts, 21, shot in May 2012 in the Madison Market Grill & Grocery parking lot. * Charles Barnes, 35, stabbed in May 2012 at a home on...

Missed Direction: Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor knows firsthand the history of gangs, drugs and violence in the city. He witnessed it all. He sold the drugs and dodged the bullets before getting out -- not just out of "the game" but out of...

Missed Direction: Mauricio 'Lobo' Howell

Mauricio "Lobo" Howell, 39, is on a new path. This one includes his own barbershop, Premier Cuts, which he is opening on Center Street in downtown Goldsboro. It is Phase 1 of a 10-year plan he has thought about...

Missed Direction: Keeping the danger out of the schools

Some kids come to school with more than just backpacks. Some bring hunger. Some bring neglect. Others bring abuse. Many carry with them the invisible scars of street violence. For public school students in Wayne County, the degrees of separation...

Missed Direction: The other choice

Marissa Davis will always be bound to the projects -- to the little girl who peeked around corners to catch a glimpse of card games, drinking and drugs. She will always be the daughter of a single mother -- of...

Missed Direction: Boys from the 'hood

He might have thrown himself onto the floor had the bullet that passed through his thigh not already knocked him off his feet. He might have cradled his head in his arms to protect himself from the debris exploding across...

Missed Direction: Who pulls the trigger?

It starts with a cluster of youths hanging around a store or a neighborhood. There is a fight, a scuffle, names are called and, in some cases, residents say, guns are drawn. It used to be viewed as just...

Missed Direction: Are gangs contributing?

Keith Acree, N.C. Department of Public Safety communications officer for adult corrections, says there are validated and non-validated gang members in Wayne County. "It's fair to say there are a very small number of folks on probation or parole...

Missed Direction: Pending murder cases

Of the 100 murder cases the District Attorney's Office has taken on since Assistant DA Matthew Delbridge began leading homicide prosecutions, there are 29 still pending from 21 events (some of the cases involve multiple suspects). Not all of them...