Pubdate: Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Fayetteville Observer
Contact:  http://www.fayettevillenc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Author: Venita Jenkins and Amneris Solano, Staff Writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

VIOLENCE BECOMING ROUTINE IN A 'DESENSITIZED' ROBESON COUNTY

LUMBERTON - Chris Locklear finished reading the obituary of a 
28-year-old man who had been shot twice in the back. He looked in the 
faces of the 300 people who had gathered at Mount Hebron Church for 
the funeral and said, ".... if we don't stand up to mind-altering 
drugs, we will be back here before the year is out." Locklear was right.

Four weeks later, the congregation gathered again to mourn the death 
of a grandmother who had been killed by her grandson for drug money. 
"It happened so quick," Locklear said, "and it just gets worse every 
time it happens." He said he fears that the frequency of shootings 
and murders has desensitized residents to the violence. "Things just 
keep happening in the community, and young people are losing their 
lives," he said. Robeson County has a history of violent crime. As of 
Tuesday, there had been 29 murders in the county this year. Twenty of 
them happened within the last six months. Last year, Robeson's murder 
rate - 20.7 cases per 100,000 people - ranked third in the state and 
was more than three times the state average of 6.2 cases per 100,000. 
The national average is 5.5 cases per 100,000. The county's murder 
rate has ranked in the top five in the state since 2000. Lawmen and 
criminologists attribute Robeson County's high murder rate to drug 
abuse, poverty and domestic violence. Johnson Britt, who has been the 
district attorney for 11 years, said every society has some 
lawlessness, but it appears Robeson County has more than its share. 
"It is a learned behavior, and it is being passed on generation to 
generation," Britt said. "We have individuals who resort to resolving 
conflict by violent means." Most murders in Robeson County happen on a weekend.

Britt said it is common for prosecutors to come to work on Monday 
asking, "How many people were killed this weekend?" "It is so common 
that the public's response to it has lessened," he said. "I am not 
saying that to be critical.

That is the reality." Jessica Scott sat with two friends in the 
atrium at Biggs Park Mall in Lumberton last week discussing the 
recent string of murders in the county. Scott, who is studying 
criminal justice at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 
knew some of the people who were murdered this year and those who 
have been charged in their deaths. "To me, when I hear about a murder 
in the county, it's just typical Robeson County," Scott said. "No one 
gets into fistfights anymore.

Either you are going to get cut or shot." McCray Bowen, who works at 
the mall, said far too many of the homicides are senseless. "It 
becomes pretty bad when it doesn't shock you anymore," he said. 
Around the region Cumberland County has the second-highest number of 
reported homicides in the 10-county Cape Fear region this year at 22. 
The Sheriff's Office, which investigated 13 of those murders, 
declined to comment except by e-mail. Bladen County has had none. 
Hoke, Moore and Sampson have had two each. Lawmen in Robeson County 
almost expect a murder to happen each week. But when they occur in 
other communities, the crimes seem more shocking because of their 
infrequency. "We're very fortunate here in Moore County," Sheriff 
Lane Carter said. He said he's not sure why murders are rare in Moore 
County, but he thinks the high population of retirees and the 
county's reputation as a resort community could be factors.

The latest murder in Moore County happened in March. "Homicides can 
happen anywhere," Carter said. "If it's going to happen it's going to 
happen." Each year, about 550 murders are committed in the state.

Robeson County accounts for nearly 10 percent, Britt said. Ninety-one 
murder cases are pending in Robeson County Superior Court. One-third 
of them happened this year. The spike in the number of murders that 
have happened during robberies is related to the county's economic 
situation, Britt said. "We have a high number of people who are 
unemployed, and you have a low per capita income," he said. "Put 
those two together, people are going to do certain things in order to 
survive or support themselves. Unfortunately, that leads to people 
robbing others." Over the past 10 years, several manufacturing plants 
closed and left thousands of people jobless.

About 3,579 of the county's residents were unemployed in September. 
According to the 2000 census, 22.8 percent of the county's residents 
live in poverty. The Robeson County Sheriff's Office alone has 
investigated 16 murders this year. A majority of them were related to 
drugs or domestic violence, said Maj. Randal Patterson, who heads the 
detective division. In most cases, the victim knew the murderer.

Two cases remain unsolved. "A lot of people jump the gun and take the 
law into their own hands," Patterson said. "They regret it later. 
"Why do people do things like that?" he asked. "I don't know. I have 
had people ask me in the past, 'What can you do to prevent it?' There 
aren't a lot of preventive measures you can put out there for 
homicides." The murders have been scattered throughout the county, 
but the small community of Evans Crossroads, just outside Maxton, has 
been hit particularly hard. Three people have been killed there 
within the past nine months; two died within four weeks of each 
other. In February, Odis Locklear was shot in the head by his 
daughter's boyfriend, Richard Locklear. Richard Locklear killed 
himself a week later while hiding from lawmen in the woods.

William Locklear's home was destroyed by fire in retaliation for the 
death of Christopher Jones, lawmen say. Locklear was charged with 
shooting Jones to death after Jones knocked down Locklear's mailbox. 
Another death happened in October when Christopher Jones was killed 
while riding his four-wheeler on John L. Road. Lawmen say William 
Locklear shot Jones twice in the back with a rifle after Jones 
knocked over Locklear's mailbox. Investigators say the men had clashed before.

William Locklear's home was burned a few days later in retaliation 
for Jones' murder, lawmen said. No one was injured. Nearly four weeks 
later - on Nov. 5 - Shirley Locklear was raped and killed by her 
grandson, Junior Blue, lawmen said. Investigators said Blue dumped 
her body on a logging road. Blue stole more than $200 to buy crack 
cocaine, they said. One day last week, Carol Locklear leaned out her 
front door and talked about the violence that has plagued Evans 
Crossroads for years. Christopher Jones was her cousin. "You wonder 
when it's going to stop," Carol Locklear said. "I don't know what 
happened here. It's like everything went to chaos.

Majority of it is drugs. It's just awful.

You may expect something like this in Fayetteville, but not in a 
small community where everybody knows everybody." Evans Crossroads is 
a sparsely populated community set between cotton fields and farmland.

Most of its families have lived there for generations. Chris 
Locklear, who attends Mount Hebron Church in the community, wants the 
area cleaned up. "You have one generation raising the next generation 
of drug dealers," he said. "It's just a cycle." Many of the murder 
victims were young adults he had seen around the neighborhood. "Most 
of those killed hadn't even turned 30," he said. His brother-in-law 
was murdered in October 2004. "I don't know what to say about the situation.

It doesn't make sense," he said. "What is the purpose of taking a 
life? All these murders just don't make sense to me." Lumberton 
crimes Seven murders in Lumberton this year include a murder-suicide 
and a drive-by shooting.

Four happened during robberies. The murder of a 14-year-old boy in 
May remains unsolved.

The boy was shot in the back. His body was found behind a house in 
East Lumberton. Investigators believe he may have been trying to rob 
someone and was shot, Police Chief Robert Grice said. "Ten years ago, 
shots fired in Lumberton drew a lot of attention.

Now, it's commonplace," he said. "It's almost becoming an epidemic.

Rather than try to work things out, people are quick to use violence.

Seems to be the firearms are the weapons of choice." Despite the 
increased number of murders, Grice doesn't think the county is any 
more violent than other places in the state. "The county has gotten a 
real bad rep because of some of the high-profile cases," Grice said. 
"Yes, we have a history of violence.

But is it greater than other areas?

I don't think it is." High-profile cases - such as the murder of 
basketball star Michael Jordan's father in 1993 - brought national 
attention to the county.

James Jordan had pulled off U.S. 74 near Lumberton to take a nap in 
his car and was killed. "There were people calling AAA trying to find 
out how they could avoid Robeson County. They had heard about 
Jordan's killing," said Frank Schmalleger, a former criminal justice 
and sociology professor at the University of North Carolina at 
Pembroke. New Yorker writer Susan Orlean immortalized the county's 
murderous reputation in her 1990 book "Saturday Night." The book is a 
collection of articles about a typical Saturday night in cities and 
towns across the country. Orlean went to Pembroke to tell the true 
story of a girl who killed her lover.

In the book she writes, "As a matter of fact, Robeson County is full 
of murders.

Nearly everyone in the county carries a gun. ... Gunplay is not out 
of the ordinary in this sort of place." Criminology professors who 
have studied the murder rate in Robeson say they believe a violent 
subculture exists. "There are many good people who are not involved 
in that subculture," Schmalleger said. "It's a matter of 
proportionality. It's not an absolute thing where we can condemn 
Robeson County for being the most violent place on earth." Richard 
Kania, a sociology and criminal justice professor at UNCP, said 
another factor in the crime rate is the social complexity of the 
county. Robeson is nearly equally divided among whites, blacks and 
Indians and has a growing Hispanic population. One ethnic group may 
victimize another, he said. In May, Alejandro Santiago was killed 
during an armed robbery at his home in Red Springs. The men involved 
were not Hispanic. Economists and local business leaders say the 
murder rate has not hurt the county's effort to recruit business and industry.

Businesses usually consider the county's property tax rate and work 
force before inquiring about the crime rate. "I don't know if it's 
any more prevalent than any other county," said Bo Biggs, the 
legislative chairman for the Lumberton Area Chamber of Commerce. 
Biggs, who also is a political observer, said businesses rarely 
consider the crime rate when looking to move to an area. Greg 
Cummings, the county's economic developer, agreed.

He said companies look at the work force, possibilities for corporate 
training and education. "Very seldom are we asked about the murder 
rate," he said. Lawmen, prosecutors and educators offer various 
solutions for curbing the violent crime in the county.

They say raising the education level and skills would provide better 
jobs and opportunities that would give people a sense of purpose and 
deter them from using violence to solve problems. "This is not your 
normal sleepy rural county out in the middle of nowhere," Kania said. 
"There are different dynamics here. ... People need to learn other 
mechanisms to resolve issues.

Their problems are real, but the method they are settling them is 
wrong." Britt, the district attorney, said he believes the number of 
murders would drop if something was done to reduce the drug problem. 
"There is no dispute that the number of defendants that end up being 
charged with killing people are either under the influence of drugs 
or have a history of using drugs or, in some instances, selling 
drugs," he said. "The drug problem in this county has greatly eroded 
people's sense of responsibility and people's sense of right and 
wrong." Additional law enforcement officers to patrol the county 
would also help, Britt said. The Sheriff's Office has 36 deputies.

He said it is nearly impossible to cover the county's 951 square 
miles with such a small department. Robeson also needs more 
prosecutors and judges, he said.

Gail Morgan McRae, a Robeson County native, has been following the 
murders in the news. McRae is the founder and former director of the 
Sandhill Mediation Center in Laurinburg. A mediation center could be 
beneficial to the county, McRae said. Volunteers serve as 
facilitators to help resolve disputes within a community, she said. 
They also provide help for family crisis and conflict resolution 
training. "Mostly, what we do is teach communication skills," McRae 
said. "People who communicate well and respectfully do not get 
involved in the kinds of conflict that leads to violence." Such a 
center would not be an overnight success, she said. The county tried 
to establish a mediation center in the late 1980s. The Robeson County 
Dispute Resolution Center was set up to handle minor disagreements 
between people, but it was never used. The center closed in the 
mid-1990s. "Served up on a proper dish, it will be palatable to 
some," McRae said. "I believe in my heart that no one wants to be 
violent or be a victim.

They just don't know any other tool but violence.

We need to provide them with the tools that will free them." But 
lawmen and prosecutors are uncertain how people who are used to 
violence can reach peaceful resolutions. "How can you reprogram 
people?" Grice asked. "It's not like there is a bottle you can buy at 
the store and drink it. It would be nice to have people sitting down 
and resolving their issues.

I am afraid we are a long way from that."
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