LAFAYETTE, Ind.— Mayor Tony Roswarski and Lafayette police Chief Patrick Flannelly long have held that residents who distance themselves from drugs or criminals are less likely to be victims of crime.
But a handful of people who were targeted seemingly at random — including senior citizens, store clerks and an elementary school art teacher — have found themselves on the wrong end of a gun in a string of violence since July 1.
In less thanthree weeks beginning in August, for example,five victims aged 62 or older were robbed— in most of the casesby masked men who entered their homes and threatened them with firearms. In another,a 70-year-old woman said she was pushed to the ground and her purse was stolen outside a grocery store.
Court documents filed after an Aug. 18 attack—one that left a 76-year-old man bloody and wounded after he was beaten in the head with a handgun— suggest the alleged assailants had no ties to the married couple living in the 600 block of North 28th Street.
At least three store clerks and several restaurant staff members also have been targeted since July 1, according to LPD news releases. Additionally, a woman told police she was eating in her car outside Burger King Sept. 29 when a suspect broke herdriver side window with a handgun, struck her in the head and demanded cash.
The build-up of violence came to a head Oct.12 when a Lafayette art teacher was shot and killed outside her home in the 1300 block of Ridgeway Avenue. Witnesses cited in court documents said the suspect — 19-year-old Darius Javon Printup — was"looking for a male ... who had ripped him off"by stealing "his backpack which contained drugs."
It's unclear what, if any, connection Printup had to 52-year-old Kristi Redmon.
"I still believe that the vast, vast majority of our crime is with people that are involved in drug activityor different activitieslike that," Roswarski said. "Can you ever say 100 percent of it? No, but that can be in Lafayette, Indiana, or the smallest town in Indiana. Sometimes there are crimes that occur that there is no number of policemen,there is no governmentprogram that would have stopped that crime frombeing committed. And I thinkmost people understand that."
Flannelly stood by Roswarski's statement, noting that there sometimes are unavoidable, "tragic side-effects" to violent crime.
"I will wholeheartedly stand by that position," hesaid."If I've learned nothing else in the last 22 years working in law enforcement,it's that we're the sum of the people we most closely associate ourselves with."
'Perception is reality'
The above incidents are part of a troubling four months in Lafayette.
Both murders and nearly half of this year's rapes and robberies, for example,have occurred in the latter partof this year, according to incident reports from Jan. 1 to Oct. 17provided by Lafayette Police Department. With two months remaining, those crimes nowappear to be on track to meet or exceed last year's numbers.
Neighborhoods across Lafayette saw a spike in personal and property crimes last year, the Journal & Courier reported in February.Despite an influx of more high-profile cases, however, LPD data suggestcrime overall is down compared to 2015.
Although Roswarski noted the numbers only serve asa snapshot, he said he's optimistic about the success of several law enforcement initiatives announced last September, including addingfive patrol officer positions and offering take-home cars to employees.
He added that residents have told him "that their perception is that things are better" and that police visibility has improved.
"I think people will look at what's happening in the community, atthe initiatives taking place, and look at that in a larger context as opposed to just one specific incident," he said, referring to the most recent homicide."Sure, is it going tomake you feel a little uneasy? Absolutely. I'm not going to sugar coat that in some way."
Flannelly acknowledged that the high-profile crimes mentioned above "garner the most amount of attention" and can influence public perception even though numbers are down.
"In a lot of cases, perception is reality," he said."If people feel like they're unsafe, if they feel like there's a lot of crime, thenthat means we still have our work cut out for us, and there's still things we can improve on."
'Deadly combination'
While personal and property crimes are on the decline, drug and weapon violations are on pace to exceed those recorded last year— a deadly combination that isa recipe for tragedy, Flannelly said.
"Any time you have more gunsin the hands of less responsible people, the likelihood of tragedy is going to go up," he said.
Roswarski— who admitted the city is "nowhere near where we want to be on the drug situation"— compared the combination to another deadly one: drinking and driving.
"When you have people involved in any type of criminal behavior, whether it's involving guns, drugs, whether it's involving drunk driving, you run the risk of … an innocent person potentially being the victim of a crime," he said. "That’s the reality."
But Flannelly noted the statistics could point to moretips from the community and improved enforcement by police— and not necessarily an influx of guns and drugs into the community.
"In previousyears, maybe things that went undetected are being detected, and that drives numbers up," he said.
At the very least, however,the numbers prove the prevalence of firearms in Lafayette and the gripthat drugs such as heroin have taken on the community. And residents can look toRedmon's murder to see the consequences.
"You can't put a bullet back in the chamber," Flannelly said.
Call J&C reporter Joseph Paul at 765-420-5339, email him at jpaul@jconline.com or follow himon Twitter:@JosephPaulJC.
