July homicides most since December ’93

LITTLE ROCK — The three homicides over the past three days have made July the deadliest month in Little Rock in nearly 20 years.

With the midnight slaying Monday of Charles Gaskins during an attempted robbery on the porch of his Little Rock trailer-home, the city recorded its 10th homicide this month, a total that hasn’t been matched since December 1993, when detectives recorded 11 homicides.

So far this year, there have been 30 homicides, two more than the total in 2010 and close to the 37 total recorded by homicide investigators last year.

The 11 homicides in December of 1993 ended a year that saw 76 total homicides, but police said the city looks drastically different nearly two decades later.

It’s not turf wars between rival gangs or ongoing “beefs” and retaliatory “drive-bys” among criminal circles driving the increase, according to police.

Chief of Police Stuart Thomas said many of the recent killings that are pushing the rise in the city’s homicide rate are the result of “extraordinary situations” and come down to domestic and personal disputes that culminated in a death.

“[The circumstances] we’re seeing in regards to homicides are different [between now and 1993],” Thomas said. “The victims are of a different nature ... we’re not seeing the heavy concentration of younger victims ... what we’ve seen this month comes down to unusual circumstances that erupt between people who know each other.”

Detectives also pointed out that six of the killings this month were double-homicides. The first came on July 1, when Luis Martinez, 25, and Esteban Mendez-Martinez, 41, were stabbed to death after an argument with a friend over beers in Martinez’s home.

Capt. Alice Fulk, who supervises the city’s homicide detectives, said that although such events are horrific, they don’t offer a pattern or cause the rise in killings.

“[The double-homicides] stand out to me ... I mean, those are senseless,” Fulk said. “They really magnify the numbers, they were just senseless, I mean, it’s just anger. It’s kind of hard ... to prevent it.”

On July 24, police found Alexis Esaw Khabeer, 25, dead in an abandoned home that once belonged to her grandmother. Khabeer was 14-weeks pregnant, and two days later, police arrested 25-year-old Mark Bonner, whom they described as a friend, and charged him with two counts of capital murder.

On Saturday, Bobby and Annette Whitlow were found killed in their home and their 12-year-old daughter kidnapped.

The Whitlows’ 33-year-old son, Antonio Whitlow, was arrested Saturday night in Memphis and will be charged in his parents’ slayings.

Saying that “just one” homicide is one too many, the chief said that in many cases, police can only react to killings.

“What measures can we do to predict or interdict when a child is going to kill his parents ... or when a card game goes awry?” Thomas said. “Situations that occur in isolation, inside people’s houses, it’s extremely difficult to predict and interdict those.”

Although up-to-date official crime statistics weren’t available, Thomas said that his department has seen a “slight uptick” in aggravated assaults, which include nonfatal shootings.

Capt. Terry Hastings, who oversees police operations in the department’s southwestern division, said property crimes like burglaries and breaking-and-enterings are on “even keel” but that he has seen a rise in robberies, many of which targeted Hispanics in the city’s southwest neighborhoods.

Although Hastings said there was little police could do about random crimes of passion between friends or family, he said police can put a dent in the homicide rate by stopping robberies before they turn deadly.

On July 14, Francisco Paredes-Juarez was standing outside a home at 6804 Colonel Glenn Road when he was approached by two men who tried to rob him. Paredes-Juarez, 32, fought back, and was shot and killed.

Although Gaskins, Monday’s homicide victim, was not Hispanic, he lived in a largely Hispanic neighborhood that has been targeted by robbers in the past.

According to police reports, Gaskins was sitting outside the 9500 South Heights Road trailer with a woman when two men climbed the stairs, and one of them drew a gun and attempted to rob the two.

The woman ran inside and pulled the door shut behind her, and witnesses inside the residence said they heard two gunshots. Gaskins, 50, was hit in the hand and face, as well as in the chest. He died at the scene.

Detectives said that they didn’t think Gaskins had any relationship with his killers, and that the two men involved in his death were in the neighborhood for the sake of robbery.

Hastings said that his division will be dedicating more patrols to problem housing complexes and popular thoroughfares like Base Line Road and Geyer Springs Road in an effort to increase visibility, response time, and hopefully, to deter violent acts.

Thomas said more strategic patrols will be sent to hot spots over the city but that in the short-term, there is only so much his officers can do to prevent further killing.

“To a certain extent, you’re playing the odds of where individuals are going to run into each other and are at risk,” Thomas said. “You hope you get it right.”

When the city campaigned for a sales-tax that passed last fall, it emphasized the need for better funding public safety, including hiring 60 more officers and buying new patrol cars and other equipment.

City manager Bruce Moore called the deadly month a “very disturbing” development and he said that public safety is still his No. 1 concern.

Moore said that the year-long rise in homicides prompted him to authorize overtime for patrol officers two months ago.

But he said that increasing visibility is only one element to a “multi-pronged” approach to increase public safety.

Moore said he thinks that efforts by the city’s intervention and prevention organizations, which are set to get double the $3 million they received from the city before the passage of the sales tax, will have a positive effect on those most at risk to be involved in a violent crime.

Other steps, such as finding more bed space at the Pulaski County jail to keep offenders off the street, as well as bring back the city’s police helicopter, could deter future violent crime, Moore said.

Thomas said his officers are doing what they can in the short-term, but that translating the city’s new revenue sources into better equipment, more officers and better police work will take time.

“It’s decidedly unrealistic to expect ... we’ll be able to overcome many years of not having adequate equipment or personnel,” Thomas said. “It’ll take a while, from a staffing point, to get where we need to be.”