"Community guns" plague Cleveland neighborhoods

More young children were shot over the weekend in Cleveland, part of an illegal gun problem law enforcement has not gotten a handle on.

 

Prosecutors said part of the issue is so-called “community guns,” where firearms are often used in multiple crimes and stashed away, hidden or thrown out, so nobody can take the blame.

 

One of the latest child victims is 12-year-old Jeffrey Andrews, who his uncle DeMario Johnson said was shot in the leg Saturday night on East 66th Street near Superior Avenue. He said occupants of a gold van started shooting at random around 7:30 that night.

 

“He rode up. He dropped the bike right there,” Johnson said pointing to the sidewalk in front of his home. "He was walking up the stairs and got shot.”

 

Andrews was treated and released from a hospital.

 

The people who did it have not been caught, but even when they are, police often have a hard time finding the weapon used.

 

For example, last week when Cuyahoga County juvenile prosecutors announced they charged 11 suspected teen gang members in connection with 30 different crimes, they said none of the guns used in those crimes were ever found.

 

“And nobody wants to get caught with the gun,” Assistant Juvenile Prosecutor Duane Deskins said on May 4, “So often the guns are either discarded, as we often see in many of our cases, or they’re kept at a friends house, so they can be picked up and used at a later time by other members.”

 

Twon Billings, former leader of Cleveland’s Crips gang, now turned crime prevention expert, said that scenario does happen, but added, “The gun came from somewhere.”

 

“People [are] investing in this and they make money off it, so it’s profit for crime,” Billings said.

 

He added that law enforcement and the people they serve both share in the blame for allowing illegal gun trafficking to proliferate across Cleveland’s neighborhoods.

 

“The community has to be at a point where they’re fed up,” Billings said, “And I don’t think the community, you know they talk, but they’re not ready to be fed up yet.”