🚀 go-pugleaf

<makemyday@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:40EE631F.D1C89195@worldnet.att.net...
> In Detroit, crime is such a way of life that the small sh#t
> is *way* under-reported.  Note in Detroit, you
> are 14 times more likely to be murdered...

You're probably right there about under-reporting small crimes in Detroit. I
live in probably the only safe neighborhood in the whole of Detroit -
Southwest Detroit near Dearborn. It's mostly Caucasians, Mexicans, and some
Arabs.

Murders are hard to under-report if a dead body is found lying around
though, making a mess of itself.

There's been a number of murders lately in Detroit. Following are three
articles over a four-day span this month:

Man charged with killing 3 in Detroit

Saturday, July 3, 2004
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm20546_20040703.htm
A man who police say shot six people, killing three, after a fight in a
Detroit neighborhood Tuesday has been charged with triple murder.

On Saturday, prosecutors charged Christopher DeSean Vaughn, 23, of Detroit
with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent
to kill, and one each of using a gun in a felony and being a felon in
possession of a firearm, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.

Police said the shooting took place after a fight between some women on the
east side Tuesday night. Police have said the suspect drove up to the scene,
got out and started firing, then drove away.

Vaughn faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree
murder.

Two victims remained hospitalized Friday, one in good condition and one
still in critical. Their conditions could not be immediately ascertained
Saturday.

The shooting capped a five-day period in which 24 people were shot in four
incidents around the city. Four died.
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http://www.freep.com/news/locway/stab3_20040703.htm
Suspect is charged in slaying and rape

Detroiter could face multiple life terms

July 3, 2004

BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A 38-year-old man suspected of fatally stabbing a Detroiter and then raping
and stabbing the man's sister was charged Friday with murder.

Matthew Bryant of Detroit also was charged with kidnapping, assault with
intent to murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and assault with
intent to do great bodily harm.

All counts carry maximum sentences of life in prison except the last, on
which the maximum is 10 years.

Bryant was arraigned in 36th District Court in Detroit as a four-time
habitual offender, meaning the sentences could be enhanced.

Police said Bryant forced his way into a home in the 20000 block of
Gardendale about 2:30 a.m. Thursday and fatally stabbed a 19-year-old man.
Police say Bryant then abducted the man's sister, raped and stabbed her. A
neighbor found the woman and called police.

Police said Bryant knew both victims.

Officials found Bryant at a relative's house about 5 p.m. Thursday.
Magistrate Steve Lockhart ordered Bryant held without bond in the Wayne
County jail. A preliminary exam is scheduled for July 14.
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http://www.freep.com/news/locway/guns6_20040706.htm
In Detroit, 5 die in a 6-hour span

7 shootings, 1 stabbing mark holiday weekend

July 6, 2004

BY SHAWN WINDSOR, ZLATI MEYER AND ERIN CHAN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

One man was shot while sitting in a car. Another man was shot outside his
house. Yet another man was shot in the back at an unknown location and
dropped off at a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A woman was stabbed and died on a sidewalk. And at a block party celebrating
the Fourth of July, three people were shot after an argument over a plate of
chicken.

Over a six-hour time span early Monday in Detroit, seven people were shot;
one was stabbed, and five died.

Detroit Police Officer Glen Woods was reluctant to talk about the latest
spate of violence in the city.

"It's always unusual," he said. "Shootings are unusual. I see them as people
choosing to settle differences in odd ways."

The violence comes after two multiple shootings last week and the gunfire at
Hart Plaza the night of the fireworks a week before that, when a man shot
into the crowd, injuring nine people.

Jennice Stokes of Detroit is sick of the violence. And she's scared.

Her husband, Michael Stokes, was shot on Father's Day, June 20, after buying
a work outfit at a strip mall on the corner of Warren and Conner.

"I just know I'm getting so that I don't want to come out of the house,"
said Stokes. "I get scared to let my kids go out and play. I let them out,
but I have to be close to them. I have to be right there by them."

Stokes decided to talk this holiday weekend because she wants to help police
solve her husband's slaying. Police said there is no motive, and no one in
custody.

"I hate watching the news," she said, "but I gear myself up to see if they
caught this person who did this. All I see is news of other shootings."

Monday's violence began around midnight, when a 20-year-old man sitting in a
vehicle parked in the 13000 block of Compass was approached by someone
wielding a gun. He was shot multiple times and died at Sinai-Grace Hospital
in Detroit. Police had no other details.

An hour later, at an annual Fourth of July block party on Santa Clara in
northwest Detroit, kids were jumping on an inflatable Moonwalk and a DJ was
spinning hip-hop records when an argument began.

By the time police arrived, three people had been injured in a fight that
started over a plate of chicken, neighborhood residents said.

Woods said two men had been arguing, pulled out guns and shot each other. A
woman who was not involved in the incident was hit in the buttocks. Police
said one of the shooters was in critical condition and that the other
shooter and the woman were in temporarily serious condition. All were taken
to Sinai-Grace Hospital.

Witnesses said one of the men left a plate of barbecued chicken unattended
when another man walked up, grabbed a chicken leg from the plate and began
eating it. The brother of the man who left the chicken pulled out a gun and
began shooting. Then he ran, firing blindly behind him, witnesses said.

"I started crying because I didn't want nobody shot," said Mariya Jones, 10,
who said she was standing outside when she saw the first man pull out his
gun. "There was a whole bunch of kids outside."

About 12 hours after the incident, some of the same children who had run
from the gunshots sat on the steps of the house where the incident had
happened. Other kids walked past stacked folding chairs and empty vodka and
tequila bottles. Some set off firecrackers left over from the night before.

Gerilyn Davis, 21, lives two doors down from the house and had just crawled
into bed when she heard the gunfire.

"There's no reason for people to do it," she said. "To see our people out
here, I feel a little anger and sadness."

About three hours later after the block party incident, a woman who lives in
the 5000 block of Martin in southwest Detroit was sitting on her porch when
she saw a midsized green vehicle drive past. She heard shots. Police said a
35-year-old man was hit in the head and died at the scene.

About an hour later, a 19-year-old with a gunshot wound in his back was
dropped off at Oakwood Hospital, police said. He was declared dead on
arrival.

About the same time, on the city's west side, a resident on Vaughan called
police after she saw a woman screaming for help and banging on front doors.
The woman had been stabbed. Leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk, she
made it to the woman's porch. She died there, police said.

"I'm very creeped out," said Cora Morgan.

Morgan spent Monday cleaning her porch, using bleach, ammonia and hot water.

"There was all this blood on the front door and the porch, blood all down
the stairs, on the cement, on the street across to the neighbors," she said.

Police didn't identify the victim, referring to her as Jane Doe.

By 6 a.m., after six people had been shot and one had been stabbed, another
man was found lying in a driveway off Mansfield, on the city's west side.
He'd been shot in the back. Police had no other details.

Before May ended, Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said the city
homicide rate had seen three surges.

In January, 18 people were killed in a 6-day period. In mid-February, the
rate spiked again, forcing police to require officers to work 12-hour shifts
to help stop the violence. In April, 40 people were killed.

Police were hesitant to say whether Monday was the beginning of another
spike.

Stokes, who can't sleep since her husband was killed on Father's Day, who
has trouble leaving the house, who waits daily for a break in the case,
doesn't know what to say about all of it.

Police told her witnesses at the scene said the killing looked like a
robbery. But no one really knows yet. They may never know.

All Stokes knows is that her children -- ages 8, 5 and 3 -- keep asking her
when Daddy's coming home.

"They don't understand," she said.
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