#3 Gang Violence Hits Home
Innocent Bystander Killed in Gang Dispute
Over the past couple of years there has been mounting evidence of gang activity in Washtenaw County. This summer gang violence claimed its first life within Ann Arbor city limits. On July 29, Tamara Stewart, a 16-year-old Huron High student was caught in an exchange of gunfire between members of two rival gangs. An innocent bystander at a party on the city's southeast side, Stewart died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Most people in Ann Arbor are only aware of the presence of gangs from the graffiti, which has gone up and been blasted off walls all over town. A closer inspection reveals that Ann Arbor's near northeast side is home to a group calling itself the North Side Gang, the far west side has the West Side Gang, and the West Willow Crips are active in Ypsilanti Township. The shootout in which Stewart died was allegedly between members of the West Side Gang and the West Willow Crips.
According to Ann Arbor Police Department Staff Sgt. Phil Scheel, it is not known whether these gangs operate independently or are connected to larger gangs, such as the Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles. Sheel also told AGENDA that police have intensified their efforts in the parts of Ann Arbor known to have gang activity, and that police have recently begun tracking gangs by coding crime reports to denote if an incident was gang-related.
The July 29 shooting took place in the Arbor Oaks subdivision - an area just northeast of Stone School and Ellsworth Roads. Problems were first reported in that area in early July. Residents complained that young people were dealing drugs, playing loud music, playing dice, drinking, and threatening passersby. They asked police for assistance in combatting these problems. Police then started a "zero-tolerance" operation in the neighborhood - issuing citations, making arrests, and impounding abandoned vehicles. This continued until the night of the shooting and resumed a day after the shooting.
There are varying accounts of what happened immediately following the shooting. There is no disagreement that an innocent bystander, Tamara Stewart, lay dead; that there was a very large, agitated crowd in the street; that more than 30 police officers (from Ann Arbor, U-M, State of Mich., Washtenaw County, and Pittsfield Township) entered the crowd to reach Stewart; that people in the crowd threw rocks and bottles at police; and that police used pepper gas and mace on members of the crowd. What is in dispute is the sequence of events and the conduct of the police and individuals in the street.
According to a report in The Ann Arbor News, police said they were met by a large, hostile crowd throwing rocks and bottles at them. Police claim they were forced to use gas and mace to disperse the crowd, which was preventing them from reaching Stewart Once they had secured the crime scene, they say an unidentified man tried to force his way through, and they maced and tackled him. That man was Stewart's father.
Several witnesses that night give a different account of the melee. They claim the police entered the crowd as if responding to a riot. They say that Stewart's father, brother and cousin were huddled over her when police arrived. The family members say they identified themselves to police but police still tackled and maced them. It was at hat point, crowd members say, that some individuals began to throw rocks and bottles at the police.
The slain girl's father spoke at a community meeting held the following night. "Why did the police gas me, and throw me down in the street when it was my child who was lying there shot?" asked Verlie Stewart. "Why did the police mace my son when he was trying to help his sister?" Stewart insisted he identified himself to officers and called the police version "100% lies."
In the weeks following the shooting, neighborhood residents have met with police to air grievances. Police have resumed their zero-tolerance approach to crime in the subdivision and residents are discussing ways to stop the violence and improve their quality of life.
Six suspects charged in the murder of Stewart are in custody . They are residents of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Ypsilanti Township, and range in age from 16 to 22 years old. Although the trigger man has not been identified, all have been charged with open murder and use of a firearm while committing a felony.
Jerene Calhoun, an Arbor Oaks resident of nearly 11 years, is quick to point out that gang members do not live in her subdivision. In an interview with AGENDA, Calhoun, a neighborhood activist and member of the Bryant Community Council (a southeast Ann Arbor community organization), said that residents have looked closely at their young people and have found no signs of gang involvement - such as wearing gang colors or spray painting graffiti.
Calhoun claims that most of the problems in her neighborhood have been caused by people who do not live there. She notes that most of the citations issued by police have been to individuals living elsewhere, and that the young men arrested for the shooting of Stewart were also outsiders.
The neighborhood has been "pretty calm since the shooting," Calhoun said. She describes a neighborhood coming together to solve its problems. Residents have formed a group called Unity in the Community, to deal wlth the aftermath of the shooting. There have been a series of meetings to discuss the situation, to plan activities and for people to get to know their neighbors.
Residents, according to Calhoun, are particularly concerned with keeping the neighborhood's young people out of trouble. With this goal in mind, they have formulated plans to restore the basketball hoops in the neighborhood park (removed due to past problems with noise and drinking), to create a new park on Ellsworth Rd . that will be named for Tamara Stewart, and to hold activities for youth at the nearby Bryant Community Center.
Unity In the Community recently held a block party on Hemlock St. (at the site of the shooting) after school on the first day of school with pizza and speakers from the community. T-shirts were distributed which on the front listed southeast Ann Arbor subdivisions, and on the back said "No Gangs, No Violence."
Unity in the Community is also workIng to get more people involved In the Neighborhood Watch program and to encourage landlords and renters to clean up rental properties. "People are ready to do what they have to do," said Calhoun. "People had closed their doors and turned their backs. Now we're getting people talking and to not be afraid to call the [police] anonymous tip lines." Calhoun added that most people In the community feel they do need the police there, and are willing to work with them.
"Our neighborhood will come back," said Calhoun. "It's not going to happen overnight. If we don't turn the community around, everybody will lose."