Police chief vows to do ‘whatever it takes’ to curtail gun violence in city
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks said last week that enough is enough, that city police would use every resource available, including a possible citywide curfew, to put an end to the gun violence that continues to threaten the safety of the entire community.
Brooks announced last Friday, November 1, that city detectives have been pulled from all other investigations as police try to determine who fired more than four dozen gunshots into several houses along 4th Avenue the previous night.
“I’m tired of the violence in this city,” the police chief said. “I’m almost to the point of imposing a citywide curfew if this doesn’t stop. I don’t want that, but if we have to do something like that, we’re going to do it.”
Mayor Jim Staff was short and to the point in expressing his support of the chief’s effort to curb the gunplay that has plagued the city, including two homicides this year.
“Whatever it takes,” the mayor said.
Brooks said APD officers were dispatched to the site around 9:46 p.m. after a resident called to report someone had fired several gunshots into his or her house and into several vehicles in the house’s yard.
Nobody was injured, but the police chief said investigators were later able to determine that “multiple gunshots” had been fired into “multiple residences,” and “multiple vehicles” were hit.
“We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation, so we’re not sure exactly how many houses and vehicles were hit,” Brooks said Friday. “Thank God there were no injuries.”
He pointed out that police found 49 shell casings from three different weapons — a 9mm handgun, a .45-caliber handgun and .223 casings that usually come from an automatic or semi-automatic rifle — along 4th Avenue.
Brooks said he is seeking assistance from federal and state law enforcement agencies and the county district attorney’s office to put a stop to the senseless violence.
“I’m going to use every resource in my toolbox to stop this,” he vowed. “The suspects involved in this reckless and senseless act will be charged with attempted murder and any other criminal charges that apply. Even if it’s juveniles, I want them in jail.”
Brooks, APD Sgt. Darrell McMann, Mayor Staff and Mayor Pro-Tem Shawn Lassiter met Friday morning with local journalists on the problem of gun violence within the city.
McMann said the number of “shots fired” reports received by police dispatchers has shown a slight decline in recent months. Brooks pointed out that police were responding to an average of “at least one incident a month involving guns” before police began taking a more proactive approach to slow the rate.
The police chief, who was born and reared in Atmore, encouraged those who see or hear gunfire to call police, and to cooperate with authorities in getting the suspects off the street.
“People call us all the time,” he said. “They can’t even sit out on their front porch because they’re scared they are going to be shot. But when we investigate these reports, nobody has seen anything. They’re too scared to talk to us. Whatever we have to do to stop that and make people feel safe, we are going to do.”
Police are urging anyone in the 4th Avenue area who might have video surveillance footage of the shootings, from a “ring” camera or any other source, to help police catch the individuals responsible for shooting up the 4th Avenue neighborhood.
Anyone with such evidence can call 251-368-9141 and ask for investigations or send an email to APD’s confidential online tip line, crimetips@atmorepolice.us.