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Downtown Dover residents look for answers to crime, violence

Annie Ropeik/Delaware Public Media
Dover residents and city officials talk solutions for the crime and gunshots that have made some Kirkwood Street residents fear for their lives.

Fears over violence in Dover's Kirkwood Street neighborhood came to a head Thursday night at an emergency meeting with local officials.

 

 

Behind the podium at Solid Rock Baptist Church Community Center on North West Street, Charles White held up a bullet casing in a Ziploc bag and remembered a harrowing night just before Easter.

"A large crowd assembled in front of my house on Kirkwood Street," he said. "There were shots fired, and one of the bullets came in my window."

White pointed to the local Elks Lodge as a source of the violence, but others felt it came from non-Elks members gathered near the club to drink in their cars and shoot guns, once striking a neighbor in the leg. Elks leaders like Dillard Christmas pledged to work with neighbors to clean up the streets.

"We've got to continue to strive forward and get a team together or whatever you come up with," Christmas said, "so we all can get up Monday morning and smile and say hey -- and don't be scared to go out the door."

Dover Mayor Robin Christansen, several city council members and state Rep. Sean Lynn listened as the discussion turned to the character of the historically black neighborhood, which older residents feel has changed. Many, as well as deputy Dover police chief Marvin Mailey, were angry as they pointed to irresponsible youth as a driver of the problems.

"The people our age and up are not the issue -- it's the young people," Mailey said.

He thanked those in the room for calling in illegal activity in their neighborhood. But he noted that the police force is understaffed, with sometimes fewer than 10 patrol officers on shift for the whole city. And he says many in Dover mistrust the police -- like in nearby Simon's Circle, which last week saw the city's eighth murder within a year.

"There's several people standing around when this gunfire exchanges," Mailey said. "And then it's -- 'Oh, I didn't see anything.' What can you do with that?"

That's when local substitute teacher Teresa Guinn spoke up.

"I just want to backtrack -- when you were talking about the youth. They're our future. And they have great potential," she said. "It's up to us to help bring that out instead of to point out that they're the problem. They're not the problem. The problem is the economics -- the basics that's not there. That is so devastating in Dover."

Guinn and others said the community should start mentoring and GED programs at the Elks Lodge. Local leaders reaffirmed the city's commitment to public safety, and encouraged residents to start a neighborhood watch. Otherwise, the group didn't settle on many concrete solutions.

The area's two city councilmen, Roy Sudler Jr. and David Anderson, who called Thursday's forum, say they'll take the issue up again at their quarterly meeting in September.

 

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