6 homicides in 12 days. What Columbus law enforcement say can help stop gun violence
Delilah Dukes finds the news heartbreaking, knowing another Columbus youth is dead, and another family is grieving.
She keeps up with the news on her phone, and hears each time Columbus has another homicide.
“It always hurts me when I hear that,” said the mother of Joseph Dukes, a 35-year-old father of five who fatally was shot Jan. 20, the fourth of Columbus’ 12 slayings so far this year.
The city has had six fatal shootings in just the past 12 days, two within hours of each other overnight Thursday and Friday. The rash of violence has outpaced the rate of deaths reported in 2020, which was a peak year for homicides here.
Dukes said news report of another slaying reminds her of her own loss, and makes her wonder what’s driving this wave of violence.
“It just saddens me because a young person is gone,” she said, noting that many of the homicides are happening on the east and south sides of town, predominantly Black neighborhoods.
“It’s crazy. We’re killing each other. It’s senseless,” she said. “Is it jealousy or envy? I don’t understand.”
Her son mortally was wounded on Bayberry Drive near Buena Vista Road, before he drove his car to the 600 block of Moye Road, where police found him. He died from multiple gunshot wounds at the hospital.
Police charged Deante Caruthers in that case. Dukes’ mother said the two men had been friends, before they had a dispute that led to the shooting.
She was grateful for the police work that led to Caruthers’ arrest, praising the detectives who kept in touch with her during the investigation.
But she and her family, particularly her grandchildren, still mourn. She knows how other families are affected, when they lose someone they love.
“I wish the violence would stop,” she said. “It has to stop.”
The sudden spike
Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan can’t recall anything comparable to Columbus’ recent rash of violence since he took office in 2013.
The city’s peak of 46 homicides last year was the highest toll since at least 2002, according to his records. By this time last year, Columbus had nine homicides, and did not record a 10th until Feb. 19.
So this year’s pace of 12 by mid-February is striking, Bryan noted.
Police reported two fatal shootings overnight, Thursday and Friday:
- Derico Pritchard, 37, was killed in a barrage of gunfire around 7 p.m. at the Signature Event Center, 2001 S. Lumpkin Road, where others were wounded.
- Emory Stephens, 32, was pronounced dead at 2:43 a.m. at the scene of a shooting inside the Suite Bar & Grill, 5300 Sidney Simons Blvd.
Those immediately followed Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Sara Holtrop, 18, of Hamilton, Georgia, who police said was shot accidentally by a friend playing with a loaded gun at a home on Carmel Street.
“It’s kind of a new deal to see so many in such a short time,” said the coroner, who sees no pattern in the killings. “I used to say ‘gangs and drugs,’ but who knows what it is? I don’t really know whether these are connected or not.”
He does not view them as concentrated in specific neighborhoods, but occurring “all over town,” he said.
What to do
Charged with investigating the city’s homicides, the Columbus Police Department currently is about 100 officers short of the 488 it had on the force, but that has not significantly affected its response time to emergencies such as shootings, said Katina Williams, a former homicide investigator who’s now the chief of staff.
“It’s a lot of irresponsible people with guns,” she said of the violence, particularly noting Holtrop’s shooting, in which a loaded firearm allegedly was handled like a toy.
Asked what the public can do to help, she answered immediately: They can come forward when they witness a crime.
“We need witnesses. We need statements. We need people to come to court,” she said. When they don’t, “it really hurts the cases,” she said.
She mentioned a recent shooting scene where 30 people were present and several were wounded: “And then you’ve got people, witnesses, who didn’t see anything,” she said.
Mark Jones, the newly elected district attorney for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit that includes Columbus, said he thinks authorities should take a more aggressive approach to fighting violence.
“My thought would be, we need to focus on the jail, and reducing the jail population, and that law enforcement needs to go on the offensive,” he said. “They say there are gangs out there. They say that there are organizations that are responsible for this gun violence.”
The jail needs space to house those suspects, he said.
“So what I’m going to focus on is reducing the jail population by at least 50 to 100 beds, within the next month’s time, so we can get that number down to let law enforcement do what they need to do, which is go after those who continue to use gun violence in our community.”
Like Williams, he said the police need help from the public: “We need witnesses. I know they’re scared, and all we can do on that is protect their identity as long as possible. But if somebody knows something about the gun violence, who’s moving the guns, that sort of thing, you need to help us. We want your help.”
He also proposed taking cases directly to a grand jury for indictment, instead of to preliminary hearings in Columbus Recorder’s Court to establish probable cause the suspect committed a crime.
“If we have probable cause, let’s just go ahead and take it to a grand jury,” he said. “The grand jury’s meeting every week now. I’m meeting with them personally, and they want to know about the violent crime in the community, and they want to do something about it.”
The Ledger-Enquirer contacted Mayor Skip Henderson for comment but did not receive one before publication.
The lost father
Delilah Dukes said she believes leaders in the community, from the government, churches and civic associations, need talk to young people about violence, and what it costs the families left behind when lives are lost.
When she’s reminded of her son, every time another homicide hits the news, she remembers how much he loved children.
“He loved being around kids,” she said, and they loved being with him. His 13-year-old son was on a boxing team with which the father traveled. He thought the boy, Josiah, could be a contender.
“He wanted my grandson to be the next Floyd Mayweather,” she said.
The son was inconsolable after losing his father. “He wanted to crawl into that casket with him,” she said.
Joseph Dukes had two other sons, ages 16 and 1, and two daughters ages 2 and 10, she said. Just days ago, his wife had a baby boy.
The two toddlers may be left without clear memories of his father, but the older kids will.
“All the kids took it really hard,” their grandmother said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 7:00 AM.