Crimes show uptick in shootings

A shootout along a crowded city street. Shootings in public places, parking lots and densely populated neighborhoods. These have been the settings for crimes that have increased the number of people wounded by gunfire in South Mississippi and placed others in harm's way.

Shootings since January have wounded 13 people and killed four, compared with five killed and at least five wounded in the same period last year, according to a Sun Herald analysis of shootings that have made headlines.

The region experienced the most casualties in recent memory Feb. 7, when two men were killed and four people were wounded in an exchange of gunfire. It happened in Pass Christian just after a Mardi Gras parade and sent hundreds of people running for cover.

Several shootings since January have occurred in areas where many could have been hurt or killed, authorities say. Among them:

n Shots were fired into a crowd in the parking lot of the Barber College in Waveland. Bullets struck a man in his back and leg. Police have an arrest warrant for Leif "Sip" Dasco, who they say had also been targeted in a drive-by shooting.

Waveland Police Chief Dave Allen said the city had experienced an upswing in violent crime in recent months. He blamed it over a feud involving Dasco and a small group of young men. Allen launched a roundup to arrest several young men he said are suspected in crimes such as armed robberies, a kidnapping and a drive-by shooting.

n A man was killed and his cousin was wounded outside a home on Robindale Road in Crown Hill subdivision in Harrison County.

Homes in the subdivision are built close together. "Shots could have hit anyone, anything or another house," Sheriff Troy Peterson said.

n Two men were wounded in a shooting in the parking lot of New Village Apartments on 34th Avenue in Gulfport. Police have said the shooter wounded another man and then wounded himself when his gun accidentally went off and shot him in the groin area.

n A 16-year-old died after he was shot twice on 19th Street in Gulfport. A 15-year-old is accused in his slaying.

n A woman was found shot in the head on Fournier Avenue and in critical condition. Police said at the time they didn't know where she was when she was shot or who shot her.

Some drug-related

Authorities have said at least two recent shootings with injuries were drug-related. A young man was shot in the face Wednesday night on East David Drive in Gulfport during a drug transaction, police said. A shooting in Jackson County was called "a drug deal gone bad," but the wounded young man was pistol-whipped, not shot, Sheriff Mike Ezell said.

Guns in young hands

Young adults or teens were involved in most of the shootings since January.

It's a trend Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania has been noticing since last year after a deadly weekend of unrelated killings. By April 20, police had investigated shootings that wounded 15 people and killed five. All but one of the victims were young black men or boys, a trend also noted by the U.S. Justice Department.

After that deadly weekend in April, Papania began a campaign to arrest people he considers to be part of what he called a criminal subculture, people with no respect for the law and a penchant for criminal activity.

Papania mentioned the trend of young men and gun violence again Thursday. The day before, police had investigated a shooting, an armed robbery, a robbery with an implied gun and shots fired repeatedly in a man's backyard as school buses were heading that way to drop off students.

"Whenever we have crimes such as these, we always have the question, 'Why does this happen?'" Papania said.

"Why a particular person commits a crime, we may never understand. But it's important to look at the crimes collectively, as a community."

Papania said he has serious concerns about guns in the hands of young people. He said it bothers him that legislators are not getting feedback from police on ways to help police better protect their communities.

And, he said, the crimes concern him because they cast Gulfport in a negative light.

"This is not Gulfport," Papania said.

Over the past year, he has repeatedly said most people who live or work in Gulfport will never be the victims of violent crime because they don't embrace a lawless lifestyle.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Crimes show uptick in shootings ."