A snapshot of this year's violent crime statistics

Some violent crimes involve guns or knives; others need only a beer.

At 11:50 p.m. March 16, a short-haired, heavy-set black man in an orange shirt and blue jeans brought a 24-ounce can of beer to the counter of the Circle K at 1445 Veterans Parkway.

When the clerk opened the cash register, he hit her with the beer can, snatched $83 and ran.

That's one of the offenses listed among Columbus' violent crimes by neighborhood for the first six months of 2015.

Such a small sampling is no indication of any long-term trend, just a glance at how the first half of this year went.

But aside from the area around that downtown Circle K, the stats fit earlier trends: The area ranking highest for violent crime was the neighborhood between Victory Drive and Cusseta Road that includes Winston Road, Calvin Avenue, Harbison Drive, Fletcher Avenue, Head Street and Wade Street.

It typically ranks high, and it's where one of this year's homicides happened.

At 6:56 p.m. Jan. 7, 33-year-old Gerald Hightower Jr. was gunned down during a dispute between two groups of men in the backyard of 1024 Calvin Ave. The father of an 11-year-old, Hightower died of multiple gunshot wounds hours later in the intensive care unit of Midtown Medical Center.

Police arrested a 21-year-old accused of shooting Hightower with a .45-caliber pistol.

The fatal shooting was among 20 violent crimes reported for that police patrol zone through June. Others included 11 robberies, six assaults and one rape.

Ranking second for violent crime was an adjacent neighborhood stretching from Cusseta Road north to Buena Vista Road. Its streets include Garden Drive, Clover Lane, Alford Street, Bernard Drive, Marlboro Avenue and Dawson Street.

This is another police patrol zone that typically ranks high in crime, particularly in gun violence. Through June it had 16 violent crime reports, including 10 assaults involving firearms and two instances of gunmen robbing private residences, one on Garden Drive and the other on 32nd Avenue. In fact, nine of the neighborhood's 16 crime reports listed either Garden Drive or 32nd Avenue as the location.

Ranking third in this 2015 snapshot is the area bordered north and south by Wynnton Road and Buena Vista Road, and east and west by Brown Avenue and Lawyers Lane. Though nearby areas have had high crime rankings before, this particular neighborhood has not.

It includes Gould Street, Bell Street, Francis Street, Britt Avenue, Henry Avenue and Ada Avenue. It had nine assaults, five armed robberies and a car-jacking.

The big surprise in this analysis ranking the top five Columbus neighborhoods with the most violent crime was the one that came in fourth: the area around that Circle K where the guy with a beer can snatched cash and ran.

It never made previous rankings, and the borders of its patrol zone extend into the downtown entertainment district. Its north and south boundaries are 17th Street and 13th Street; west to east, it runs from Veterans Parkway to the Chattahoochee River.

It encompasses Railroad Street, 16th Street, all but two blocks of 14th Street and 15th Street, five blocks of Second Avenue and Third Avenue, one block each of First Avenue and Broadway, and the TSYS campus.

It had nine robberies -- including two purse snatchings -- and three assaults, two involving firearms.

But only two reports came from Uptown's entertainment district: strong-arm robberies on May 16 and May 20 on Broadway. One address was 1344 Broadway, the Quick Mini-Mart and Check Cashing; the other was not specified.

Among the rest of the area's 13 violent crimes for January-June 2015 was an assault with a dangerous weapon at 1532 Third Ave., the House of Mercy shelter.

Everything else was reported from the two Circle K stores at 1408 and 1445 Veterans Parkway. Besides the beer-can robbery, the store at 1445 Veterans Parkway, on the road's west side at 15th Street, had two armed robberies, two purse snatchings and an assault involving a gun.

The store at 1408 Veterans Parkway, on the road's east side at 14th Street, also had two robberies and a gun assault.

Columbus police reacting to this odd upsurge in that zone made one obvious observation: Circle K stores, like other businesses that stay open late, are prime targets for armed robbers who prefer to hit a place overnight, when few witnesses are about.

Also, if a robber points a gun at a store clerk, that prompts a second police report of aggravated assault, so two of the reported assaults were tied to robberies.

The area ranking fifth for violent crime is another patrol zone adjacent to the two that ranked highest. It straddles Victory Drive between South Lumpkin Road and Fort Benning Road, its other borders including Torch Hill Road and Levy Road. It includes Elvan Avenue, Marathon Drive, Phillips Street and Commerce Street.

It had 12 violent crimes reported for this year's first half, five robberies and seven assaults. The robberies were all of businesses along Victory Drive. Five of the assaults were on Victory Drive, too, one involving a family dispute. The other two were on Fort Benning Road and Elvan Avenue.

Family conflicts can boost a neighborhood's crime stats in a single stroke: All it takes is one angry relative with a gun to threaten everyone at a family gathering to spawn multiple assault reports.

While noting that overall crime was down for the first six months of the year, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson added that most of Columbus' violent crimes involved people who know each other -- meaning not that they were all related by family, but they had relationships, either through drug deals or other illicit business arrangements, or because of personal disputes that escalated, particularly where people with guns were drinking and carousing.

Few cases now involve stranger-to-stranger crime, she said. Police administrators agreed, saying they've had homicides that led to vengeance killings, creating a recurring cycle.

While they do not argue with their own statistics, Police Chief Ricky Boren and Maj. Gil Slouchick refuse to say one area of town is more dangerous than another. One reason is that they don't want to stigmatize everyone who lives in a single neighborhood.

They point out that the statistics by patrol zone show only where people were victimized, not where the perpetrators came from, and most residents typically are working people with children who did nothing to invite trouble.

"These good people who live in that area become prey," said Slouchick.

In poorer neighborhoods, residents often lack the protections others take for granted, he said: They can't afford burglar bars and alarm systems. If they don't have cars, they have to walk, putting them at risk of being accosted by predators on the street.

If they live in fear, they don't help the police when crime occurs, fearing they'll be targeted as "snitches."

Tomlinson said that in economically distressed areas such as the neighborhoods that often rank high in crime, "the fabric of the community has eroded away," leaving a largely transient population that comes and goes through rental properties.

With few long-term residents, the neighbors often don't form bonds that obligate them to look out for each other's property. They become isolated in their homes and avoid any interaction that could lead to trouble. That disconnect frees predators to prowl the area.

In such circumstances, the police are hampered in what they can accomplish, because they need witnesses to make cases.

Slouchick emphasized this, saying police want to secure neighborhoods for law-abiding residents. But they can't just invade an area like some occupying force. For one thing they don't have the resources, and for another, it would alienate the neighbors rather than enlisting their aid.

"It's their community, and we need them to help us help them take their community back," he said. "If you've got a problem in your neighborhood, if you see something going on, then step forward and be a witness. Let us know," he added. "If you know who's robbing a store, if you know who's burglarizing the houses, call us and tell us. It's not being a 'snitch.' It's being a good citizen. Somewhere down the road we lost that mindset."

Tomlinson said one long-range method of dealing with areas home to high-crime rates is redevelopment -- finding ways to lure long-term residents and businesses back to restore a sense of community. A more immediate step is to form a Neighborhood Watch or other association that connects the residents who want the city's help.

Those who fear helping the police should remember this, Slouchick said:

"These individuals who prey on these good people in the community, they rely on that fear factor. But I'm going to tell you, I've seen them a thousand times, and they're a big man in the community, and why do they run from the police? Because they're scared -- they don't want to go to jail."

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "A snapshot of this year's violent crime statistics."