Data about shots-fired reports in Cape difficult to confirm, compile

It seems like a scene that would occur only in a movie: two men exchanging gunshots, inside, in the middle of a winter afternoon.

Christian Isaiah Sewell-Barnes of Kansas City, Missouri, was watching a movie with a friend, Melissa Catherine Welker of Cape Girardeau, about 3 p.m. Jan. 15, 2015, at 904 Ellis St., according to an incident report written by Cape Girardeau detective Jimmy Smith provided by Cape Girardeau police.

Sewell-Barnes heard a crash in the back of the house. Although he thought it may have been one of the dogs or cats, he grabbed his small AK-47 style gun equipped with a 30-round magazine, Smith wrote.

Sewell-Barnes walked back through the kitchen and saw a man had kicked in the back door and was holding a .45 Hi-Point handgun, according to the report.

The man saw Sewell-Barnes first and shot through the doorway. Sewell-Barnes said he fired about eight shots from his weapon until he was struck in the shoulder, according to the report. The bullet entered through Sewell-Barnes' scapula and exited his rear deltoid. The physician did not think the bullet would cause permanent damage, Smith wrote.

Nine bullet holes in the east side of the house were captured in photographs, and five shell casings from Sewell-Barnes' weapon and four .45 caliber shell casings were collected, according to a report from officer Cary Dunavan.

The magazine of Sewell-Barnes' weapon had 20 of the 30 possible rounds, according to a report from police Lt. Rodney Barker. A Hi-Point .45 caliber was recovered from the back porch, with blood visible on the slide of the gun, Barker wrote.

Six shots or more

The combination of details at 904 Ellis St. was unique but not necessarily out of character with other shootings in Cape Girardeau.

Of the 55 confirmed shots-fired reports since 2011 provided to the Southeast Missourian, witnesses reported hearing six shots or more 21 times, or 38 percent.

In 12 of those 21 cases, police collected shell casings or other evidence that verified witness accounts of the number of shots fired.

With all those bullets flying around, occasionally bystanders -- or at least people who claim they are bystanders -- were shot.

Dale Anthony Garrett was shot in his left foot while standing on the front lawn of his cousin's house on South Benton Street at 10:15 p.m. Aug. 1, 2015, according to an incident report from officer Richard Couch. Witnesses said several shots were fired from the intersection of Bloomfield and Benton streets, according to a report from officer Anthony Vezeau.

Eric Terrill Collins said he was urinating on a wall near The Outlet convenience store March 16, 2016, when he heard someone yell get down, according to a report from officer Aaron Bennett. Collins heard four or five shots, ran and was shot in both legs, Bennett wrote.

In the reports obtained by the Southeast Missourian, 12 people were shot, and there were 37 incidents of property damage. Not every incident report resulted in an injury or property damage.

Officers arrested 10 people from those reports.

About the reports

Cape Girardeau police did not release information on every confirmed shots-fired report with injuries or property damage as requested by the newspaper.

Some reports were withheld in part because of arrest warrants and case dismissals enacted by Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney's office, according to public information officer Sgt. Adam Glueck.

Other reports were withheld because they involve juveniles, Glueck wrote in an email.

The Southeast Missourian originally issued an open-records request with the Cape Girardeau Police Department, asking for the number of certain crimes related to gun violence over the last five years.

The department did not provide those numbers, but instead provided hundreds of pages of incident reports related to crimes described in the newspaper's request. The request was made in April and fulfilled several months later with a charge of $310.

The newspaper has made separate Freedom of Information requests to the FBI for numbers of gun crimes attached to certain ZIP codes, but those requests still are being processed.

What was not included in the Cape Girardeau Police Department response to records was reports on homicides.

One homicide report was released to the newspaper, from 2012. The department reported 15 homicides between 2011 and 2015 in its 2015 annual report. There have been five suspects arrested on suspicion of first- or second-degree murder from shootings in 2016 and another shooting where two suspects were arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.

Also not included in the incident reports were other shootings covered by the Southeast Missourian. Those shootings include Paige Smith, who was shot in the head June 29, 2015, and several other shootings from 2015 and 2016.

There were no confirmed shots-fired reports provided for 2011.

Glueck was asked to provide numbers that might include all of the homicides, shootings and confirmed shots-fired calls from 2011 through 2016 but was unable to do so by deadline.

Glueck previously has said shots-fired calls are difficult for the department to track because the incidents could be categorized under many different crimes, including property damage, assault and armed criminal action.

Because so many known reports were missing from the response, there is no way to tell whether shootings involving injuries and property damage are increasing or decreasing over the past five years.

Using data

The Cape Girardeau Police Department has discussed its struggles to use data to analyze criminal activity.

For several years, the department has deployed a community-policing strategy, making a more concentrated effort to be visible in communities in non-threatening situations. The department's measure to determining whether community policing has been effective is whether community members are attending Coffee With Cops, Neighborhood Roll Calls and other events, Glueck wrote.

Police chief Wes Blair has said he would like to use databases, but the city doesn't have the necessary technology to break down numbers such as the ones the newspaper requested.

Blair recently attended a national conference where data mining was a topic of interest, and he said he would like to see similar efforts implemented in his department.

The department uses measurable objectives based on programs of individual officers to evaluate its effectiveness against gun crimes, Glueck wrote. Glueck did not give specifics on what type of objectives the department employed.

The department has collaborated with a Street Crimes Task Force as a preventive measure against gun crimes, Glueck wrote. The Street Crimes Task Force includes partnerships with the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, Charleston Department of Public Safety and Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Law-enforcement officials attributed the task force's 40 felony and other arrests to a drop in crime during the summer throughout Southeast Missouri, according to an interview with Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott.

Glueck said patrols increase based on the frequency of crime-related incidents. There were 23 shootings, according to the reports given to the Missourian, on Benton, Pacific, Hanover, Jefferson and Bloomfield streets combined. Benton Street had the most shootings with eight. Those streets form a two-by-three-block rectangle in South Cape Girardeau.

Previously, the Southeast Missourian requested information on the prevalence of crimes in certain areas, and the police department said it could not provide those figures.

South Sprigg Street and Whitener Street had four and three shootings between 2011 and 2016 respectively.

Major Case Squad

The Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad has seen success investigating homicides. The Major Case Squad has made arrests in each homicide investigation in 2016 and the Paige Smith shooting.

In 11 nonfatal-shooting cases provided to the Southeast Missourian, there was an arrest in one, but cases in the process of adjudication was a factor for reports being withheld from the Southeast Missourian. The department has made arrests on recent shootings.

"Because so many agencies are involved, the Major Case Squad is able to devote a large amount of resources and investigators to a particular incident," Glueck said. "This is different from other investigations at Cape P.D. where one or two detectives or even a patrol officer is assigned to investigate an incident on top of the other cases they are currently working on or while they are expected to perform other duties."

The Major Case Squad bylaws do not dictate the organization, which includes cooperation from Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, Jackson Police Department, Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety and Missouri State Highway, be used for only homicides.

For instance, the Major Case Squad was used in the Smith case, even though Smith is alive.

"It is not the commander's call as to whether or not to activate. It requires the consent of at least two board members, none of which work for the same agency," Blair wrote in an email. "Typically, we will only activate for homicides. Yes, Paige Smith was an exception to that. It would be difficult to get commitments from other agencies outside of Cape to activate to work all of our smaller shootings with their limited resources."

Witness accounts

A crucial component of shooting investigations are witness accounts.

The Sewell-Barnes shooting was unusual in it produced a suspect's weapon, complete with DNA. Officers tested the DNA, and it was a match for one person, but that person was not charged in connection with the shooting, according to Cape Girardeau County's Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh.

Sewell-Barnes' description of the suspect conflicts with the match to the DNA, according to Jimmy Smith's report.

Glueck wrote forensic evidence can be difficult to obtain when a crime occurs outdoors.

"When a crime scene is located outdoors, there are certain environmental factors that can make evidence collection more challenging, such as weather, foot and vehicle traffic and poor lighting," Glueck wrote. "Sometimes when a shooting occurs within the city, the police department receives numerous reports of people hearing gunshots. The exact location of where the shooting took place is sometimes difficult to determine, unless someone or something was struck or someone directly observed the gun being fired."

Complicating matters is the victim, who should be the most credible witness, can be uncooperative. Keshawn Maurice Childress was shot in the neck and in the thigh when he was trying to help someone up after a fight in front of The Spot nightclub Dec. 15, 2012.

Childress refused to give a statement on the men he believed shot him, though his girlfriend at the time identified Malcolm Uriah Harris and his brother, Alexander Sebastian Harris, as the suspects in the case.

"If the victim is uncooperative, it is difficult to investigate the incident and work toward a successful prosecution," Glueck said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Facts about Cape shooting reports

Confirmed shots-fired calls from 2011 to 2016: 55

Non-fatal shootings from 2011 to 2016: 12 (with several shootings not provided to the Southeast Missourian)

Property damage reports from shots-fired calls: 37

Reports of six shots or more: 21

Arrests: 10

Homicides between 2011 and 2015: 15

Most dangerous street: Benton Street, with eight confirmed shots fired calls

Pertinent address: 904 Ellis St., Cape Girardeau, MO