Nearly 40 suspects arrested in ‘Enough is Enough’ Columbus police sting
Columbus police are touting the results of a month-long crime-suppression effort they’re calling “Operation Enough is Enough,” which during October cleared 113 warrants and arrested 39 suspects, six charged with murder.
Chief Freddie Blackmon said in a news conference Monday that officers also seized eight guns, 45 grams of cocaine, 400 grams of marijuana and more than 1,000 pills.
Besides murder, police with the department’s crime suppression unit of fewer than 20 officers served 17 warrants for aggravated assault, six for armed robbery and one each for rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy.
One of the six people arrested for murder was charged in a double-homicide, clearing a total seven murder warrants, the chief said.
These were the suspects charged with murder, according to police:
- Zajali Riley, arrested in the May 8 fatal shooting of 20-year-old Devion Miley in the 3100 block of Macon Road.
- Detric Bush, also charged in Miley’s homicide.
- Antoine Bell, arrested in the Oct. 1 fatal stabbing of Salaysia Duerner, 45, near Curry Street and Braselman Avenue.
- Roddrick Glanton, arrested on two counts of murder in the June 14 fatal shootings of Saiveon Pugh, 18, and Jessie Ransome, 17, at the intersection of 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue near Wilson Homes.
- Tanyanykia Roberts, charged in the March 30 death of her 3-month-old son Jamier Roberts, found unresponsive when authorities were called to Wilson Homes.
- Clay Pugh, whose previously unannounced arrest was not tied to a specific case Monday. Blackmon said police charged one suspect in a 2019 homicide, and all those named above were connected to cases occurring this year. Jail records show Pugh, 36, was arrested Sunday.
Blackmon said the officers involved in the operation hit crime “hot spots” to serve warrants, monitor the neighborhoods and increase police visibility. Some were equipped with “tag readers” that scan car tags and tell officers whether the car is stolen or registered to a wanted suspect.
He refused to be more specific. “I don’t want to get into too much information regarding our strategy,” lest that jeopardize future operations, he said.
Among those attending the news conference were Mayor Skip Henderson, Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman and acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry.
Terry vowed quickly to prosecute the cases police are making.
“The police department and the sheriff’s office have done their job, and now it’s time for the DA’s office to do our job, and to ensure that all these individuals who have been arrested are processed through the system and that justice not only is brought swiftly but with integrity,” she said.
Terry, who has been trying to fill vacant positions for staff prosecutors, said she recently hired five with court experience, at least three of them veterans of the office: Robin Anthony, formerly Robin King; Mark Anthony and Peter Hoffman.
She has three openings left, she said.
The Muscogee County Jail currently has more than 100 murder suspects awaiting trial, said Countryman, who added those charged with murder make up about 14% of the jail population. He estimated 112 of around 960 jail inmates face murder charges, though the number changes regularly.
Henderson said the city has devoted crime prevention funding to offer alternatives to crime to local youth. ““So the opportunities are there,” he said. “I would just urge them to take advantage of those opportunities.”
But if they do not, and they commit violent crime in Columbus, the officers who were gathered around him Monday would hunt them down, he said: “They’re going to find you, and they’re going to separate you from your freedom from as long as possible.”