The Black Informant

For the next couple of weeks or so, I will be doing a series of posts that will feature our young Black men or women who have had their lives cut short due to homicide from around the country.

Rattling off gobs of homicide statistics is very easy–all you have to do is COPY and PASTE–BAM! You made your point. However, after all the debating is over there is still somebody out there who is without a father, son, brother, sister, mom or friend due to the “statistics” we so freely throw around.

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(latimes.com) Funeral services were held Tuesday at First AME church in the West Adams district for Watts homicide victim Mario Jackson, 45, one of the victims of a double homicide May 6. (source)

Comment from a LAPD detective:

I am pleased to see the blog (LA Times blog) posts and well wishes for the family of Mario Jackson, who along with his friend Tierney Yates was senselessly shot and killed during which should have been a night out to enjoy a televised boxing event. The shooting occurred at a private club, and in attendance were over 20 people who by all accounts were acquaintances. The location is a small building with a well-lighted patio area where the shooting occurred. The incident was most likely precipitated by an argument, which caused someone inside to telephone the police and report a disturbance (before the shooting). I was the homicide detective supervisor at this incident, and for the past 20 years it saddens to see the lack of empathy we have for our friends and neighbors in a time of need. I have mourned for thousands of victims over these years, and have attended as many funerals as I care to remember. Having sat with the Jackson and Yates families on the day of their loved one’s deaths, and knowing that this incident was witnessed by so-called friends, it left me speechless in consoling the families for any hope of solving this double murder. For all those in attendance and witnessed this shooting, know that you have given strength to the person responsible, and that no doubt another life will be taken by him without consequences, unless we stand up for our friends and neighbors.

Detective III Sal LaBarbera

OSB Criminal Gang/Homicide Group

Southeast Squad

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Police Want More Information About Quadruple Homicide

Quadruple Homicide Victims

Durham (wral.com)— Police have increased its reward to $3,000 for information about the 2005 execution-style slayings of four men at a Durham townhouse.

“We believe several people in our community have additional information regarding this violent crime,” Cpl. David Addison, coordinator for Durham Crime Stoppers, said in an e-mail Thursday.

In October, authorities arrested Rodrick Vernard Duncan in connection with the Nov. 19 shootings of Juan Coleman, 27, Jamel Holloway, 27, Lennis Harris Jr., 24, and Jonathan Skinner, 26, inside the residence at 2222 Alpine Road.

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Investigators said the shootings were not random acts and that the victims were probably targets of a drug-related robbery. Police Chief Steve Chalmers, in a Nov. 21 interview, said the victims knew the men responsible for shooting them and that the assailant went to the townhouse with every intention to kill them. (more…)