‘When is enough enough?’ Raleigh police chief pleads for help to reduce violent crime

This story was updated to correct George Burnette’s cause of the death.

Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown called Monday for improving the partnership between police and the community to stop violent crime as the city experiences its most deadly year in more than a decade.

Deck-Brown held a press conference Monday afternoon after three shootings and two stabbings early Sunday morning left two people dead and three people injured, according to the police.

There have been 29 homicides in Raleigh this year, as of Sunday. The city last had a higher number in 2008, when there were 35, according to Raleigh police. Last year, there were 17 homicides, police said.

But Deck-Brown said each individual case is important, not just the statistics.

“One life is too many,” she said. “This is not the same thing as bikes being stolen, cars being stolen.”

According to Raleigh police, 18 of this year’s homicides have involved firearms.

There have been 98 non-fatal shootings this year as of Dec. 9, according to the police. There were 103 last year, 113 in 2017 and 88 in 2016, Raleigh police said.

“This isn’t about firearm ownership,” Deck-Brown said. “It is about understanding the consequences of using that firearm.”

Deck-Brown emphasized the need of creating partnerships between the police, local communities and criminal justice officials, including the district attorney’s office and United States attorneys’ office.

“Very often people have seen something in advance of these incidents,” she said. “What we’re doing right now is pleading to the community and asking for their help.”

She also said that she could use more officers.

“Any police department in the country will say yes to that,” Deck-Brown said.

This year’s homicides have included victims of all ages, from two 1-year-olds and a 14-year-old to a 65-year-old and an 85-year-old.

“Some of the more senior community have been impacted by this and some of the youngest have been impacted by this,” Deck Brown said. “When is enough enough?”

A weekend of violence

Early Sunday, about 1 a.m., Raleigh police said they were alerted by WakeMed that a man had been shot on the 4400 block of Capital Boulevard in North Raleigh at a Fiddle Stix gas station.

Around 1:45 a.m., police responded to another call of shots fired from the 300 block of Rush Street in South Raleigh, where they found a man who had been fatally stabbed in the parking lot of Club 30 Plus, police said. Police were then dispatched to WakeMed, where they learned two men had arrived at the hospital with stab wounds.

At 2:30 a.m., police responded to reports of shots fired in the 1400 block of Crest Road at an apartment complex near North Carolina State University. Police found a victim with gunshot wounds. He was taken to WakeMed but did not survive.

On Tuesday, Raleigh police arrested a 29-year-old suspect in the fatal and non-fatal stabbings on Rush Street.

Kwame Smith was charged with murder in the death of George Franklin Burnette, 33. He was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbings of Vincent Wayne Mason Jr., 19, and Tristan Lee Mason, 20, who were treated at WakeMed for non-life-threatening injuries.

In Durham, violent crime also has increased this year, The News & Observer has previously reported. In November, Durham Police Chief C.J. Davis said the jump in crime is attributed to more homicides and aggravated assaults, The News & Observer reported. Meanwhile, reported rapes fell 12% and robberies fell 18% for a three-year low.

As of 33 reported homicides in Durham as of Nov. 16, according to the Police Department’s website. That compares to 27 homicides by the same time in 2018, and 16 by the same time in 2017.

Davis has said the Police Department and Sheriff’s Office are building up an “enhanced gang task force.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 8:27 PM with the headline "‘When is enough enough?’ Raleigh police chief pleads for help to reduce violent crime."