Pubdate: Fri, 27 May 2005
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Associated Press

POLICE PURSUING LEADS IN SLAYINGS

HUNTINGTON -- More than two dozen investigators from seven agencies
are "working around the clock'' to track down leads in the shootings
that left four teenagers dead, police said.

Huntington police continue to focus on connections to Detroit-based
drug dealers, but declined to divulge details about the shootings Sunday.

"I feel quite comfortable it will be solved,'' said Huntington Police
Chief Gene Baumgardner.

"But we don't have any what I would call earthshaking news to bring to
you.''

Police say 19-year-old Donte Ward was the likely target of the
shooting at his home, while Eddrick Clark, 18, Michael Dillon, 17, and
Megan Poston, 16, appear to have been shot because they were
witnesses. Poston, whose funeral was Thursday, was Dillon's date to
his high school prom Saturday night.

Police officials from other cities in Kentucky and Ohio have contacted
Huntington officers about problems with Detroit crack dealers, Capt.
Steve Hall said.

"So Huntington is not the only city that is infected with big city
drug dealers,'' he said. "I also don't want to make it sound like
Detroit is the only big city bringing drugs into Huntington. But it's
the predominant one.''

Hall said one of the difficulties facing law enforcement is that
dealers obscure their real identities by using street names.

The FBI is providing a computer mapping system, which supervisory FBI
agent Joseph Ciccarelli said will become especially helpful as police
gather increasing amounts of information.

The system "can generate timeline information, it can generate
documents related to vehicles, and people referenced in the case,'' he
said. "As the case grows it becomes more valuable.''

Crack sells for about double the price in Huntington than it does in
Detroit, Hall said.

And because of less-strict gun laws and no state-mandated waiting
period, West Virginia is attractive to criminals who want to obtain
weapons, said Laura Volk, special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Louisville, Ky.

"Historically, both Kentucky and West Virginia have experienced people
from other states coming in to our areas to buy guns to resell in
their areas,'' she said.

"We don't have any state-enforced maximum of guns that can be
purchased.''

Criminals will use "straw-buyers'' who don't have a criminal record to
buy guns for them, or they will simply buy their weapons from flea
markets "that are a huge problem, because there's no paperwork
required by the states,'' she said.

The murders of the four teenagers has led some, like Delegate John
Overington, R-Berkeley, to call for the reestablishment of the death
penalty in West Virginia. The state outlawed the practice in 1965.

The death penalty is still available to federal prosecutors.
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