Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jan 2002
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobile/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Ron Colquitt, Richard Lake

POLICE: DRUGS, GUNS ADD UP TO MURDER

Man Found Dead, Teen-Age Girl Wounded When Pot Party Turns Violent At 
Luscher Park, Authorities Say

A situation police believe started as a pot party at Luscher Park 
turned violent Wednesday night, ending in the death of a Mobile man 
and the wounding of a young Mobile woman.

Horace Joiner, 31, of Fernwood Court was found dead in the parking 
lot of the popular, family oriented park on Dog River in south Mobile 
near Navco Road, police said.

Eighteen-year-old Angela Gam ble, of Glenwood Street, suffered a 
gunshot wound to the leg with the bullet shattering a femur, John M. 
Tyson Jr., Mobile County district attorney, said.

"Drugs and violence, the two go together," said Tyson who went to the 
scene of the shootings.

Joiner's slaying was the sixth homicide this year in Mobile. "Five of 
the six were by gun, there is no question about it," Tyson said.

There were 45 homicides last year. Six occurred in December.

"There are lots of guns out there, but I think the story is the 
violence -- lethal violence and drugs. Drugs and violence, the two go 
together," Tyson said. "I think that explains the increase in 
homicides last year, and it's turning out to be true this year."

Police said Gamble was taken to Springhill Medical Center, but a 
nursing supervisor said there was no report of her being admitted.

Mobile police Chief Sam Cochran said in a recent story about last 
year's 45 slayings that more than half of them were drug related. The 
chief also pointed to a proliferation of guns in Mobile.

"There is a significant drug problem in Mobile. If we were not doing 
what we're doing now, things would be so much worse," Cochran said in 
the story.

Cochran could not be reached Thursday.

Tyson said, however, "There is an unbelievable amount of violence in 
the communities right now. We are coming off a horrific December."

Mobile police Maj. Tommy Calhoun said Joiner has a "fairly extensive 
criminal history with felony arrests including narcotics charges."

Calhoun said no arrest had been made late Thursday, but earlier in 
the day homicide investigators had questioned and released someone in 
connection with the case.

"Efforts are under way to identify the suspect and motive for the 
shooting," Mobile police officer and spokesman Pat Mitchell said. 
"The preliminary investigation revealed that all parties involved 
were possibly smoking marijuana together at the time of the incident."

Luscher Park is in the 2400 block of North Dog River Drive. Mitchell 
said Gamble may have been shot in the area of Navco Road which 
intersects with Dog River Drive North. Tyson said Joiner's body was 
found in the parking lot of the park.

An older model car, possibly belonging to Joiner, was found near the 
railroad tracks that parallel North Dog River Drive, Tyson said.

Louise Padgett, president of the Morningside Community Action Group, 
said the neighborhood around Luscher Park generally is quiet. 
Violence at the popular, family-oriented park is unusual.

"It comes as very much of a surprise to me," she said of the 
shootings that left Joiner dead and Gamble wounded.

The Action Group, a crime-and-blight-fighting organization that works 
with local police, meets monthly at Morningside Elementary School 
during the school year, but holds its meetings at Luscher Park in the 
summertime.

Sam Owens, who lives near the park, said police reports of drug 
activity in the park were not really surprising, but a homicide there 
is highly unusual.

"It probably surprised everyone in the neighborhood," Owens said.

He said the park is very popular with weekend boaters and fishermen, 
and that a youth football group meets there regularly.

"You go there in football season, there's hundreds of people there," he said.

People sometimes go to the park late at night, even though it's 
supposed to be closed at that time, Owens said.

"I've come by there at 12 or 1 at night, and it's full of cars," he 
said. "The police come by and run everybody off, but then they come 
right back again when the police leave."
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