Toddler shot to death in Syracuse

[Crunchy Frog]

Syracuse police say a 20-month-old toddler has died after being shot Sunday afternoon on the city's south side.

Authorities say Rashad Walker, Jr. was in his car seat in a minivan stopped on Coolidge Avenue around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when he was struck by at least one bullet from a barrage of shots.

Walker, Jr. died around 6:45 p.m. Sunday at Upstate University Hospital, less than three hours after police responded to the shooting.

"With the amount of shots fired and all the shootings we've had, it was only a matter of time before something tragic like this happened," Connellan says. "People really need to start taking account for what's going on and what their children are up to."
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=547006

Almost exactly the same age as my little guys. I can't wait to get them out of the Syracuse area.

[X_Digger]

1. Not being a resident..

.. is there a serious gang related crime problem in Syracuse?

[Crunchy Frog]

2. I don't know whether it's gang related

but there has been alot of gun violence recently.

[X_Digger]

4. Perhaps I was reading between the lines in the various updates..

.. group of teens running from the area, previous shootings in the vicinity, the father possibly being targeted.

[quickesst]

3. Sad and disturbing....

...but the truth is this issue will remain unresolved until people start to understand the difference between responsible gun owners and the likes of those involved in this thread and the like. Their seems to be a tendency for both sides to use that against each other. Truth is, most resonsible gun owners are as appalled at the actions of the subjects in this thread as those who oppose guns altogether. Understand, that if one of my grandchildren are threatened physically by an adult with a knife, gun, or fists, I would not hesitate to take them out if it's my only option. I would not resort to those tactics if any other viable option is available. What I will not do, unless another innocent life is at stake, is take a gun to someone solely for vengeance. Until that bridge is gapped, the debate will rage on. Thanks.
quickesst

[Euromutt]

5. Ugh, poor kid

I have to say, the incident does sound gang-related, mainly on the basis that there are few other situations in which multiple shots get fired in a residential street and nobody can or will tell the cops who or why. The multiple strays (into the minivan and the neighboring house) indicate amateurs at work. Multiple shots also means we're not dealing with a negligent discharge.

[Atypical Liberal]

6. Article updated. Both shooter and father were in gangs.

From the updated article:

http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=547006

"A 21-year-old man is being held without bail in the shooting death of a 20-month-old toddler. Sequan Evans of South Salina Street in Syracuse is charged with second degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned in Syracuse City Court Tuesday morning.

Police say Evans is a member of the Bricktown Gang and was driving around Syracuse on Sunday looking for someone from the rival 110 Gang to shoot. Evans pulled up alongside a minivan on Coolidge Avenue carrying Walker, Jr. and four people, including his parents, and fired into the van. The toddler was hit by the gunfire and died.

Police say the toddler’s father, Rashad Walker, Sr., is a member of the 110 Gang and the likely target of Evans. Fowler mentioned that the Sunday shooting that killed Walker, Jr. was in retaliation for a Friday night shooting at the interchange of Interstates 81 and 690 that injured 19-year-old former Henninger High School star athlete Kihary Blue and one other person. Blue is currently listed in critical"

Once again, we have a shooting that is gang and probably drug related, performed by someone who has an extensive criminal background (he was on parole for another shooting in 2005) and is already prohibited by law from possessing firearms.

Per Wikipedia and other sources, there are some 800,000 gang members in the United States today. Compare this to the fact that we have about 186,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are four times as many gang members in the United States as troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan!

This country does not have a gun problem. It has an organized crime problem. If our criminal justice system kept more of these known violent people in jail, they would not be on the streets committing more violent crimes. The shooter in this story was on parole after having shot someone before in 2005. And then everyone is surprised when they get out and do it again.

[Texasborncowboy]

7. Parole seems to be a huge problem.

In todays criminal justice system parole is a major contributor to violent crime. How many times have we seen a horrible violent crime committed by someone on parole?

I've been pursuing a degree in criminal justice for a couple of years now (I went back to college at age 43) and am appalled at the recidivism rate of violent criminals. Some statistics show a recidivism rate in the neighborhood of %68.

I saw a case recently where a man in Texas was sentenced to 25 years for two murders and was released after serving only 14. Guess what? He stabbed two people killing one. I just keep thinking he should have still been in prison where he couldn't hurt the public (they call this incapacitation in corrections lingo).

The worst case of parole that I'm aware of involved Kenneth McDuff. He was a serial killer sentenced to die in Texas. Through a series of events he was able to gain parole. He then raped, tortured and killed nine more people.

[DonP]

8. On parole criminal killed 2 cops in Chicago yesterday

According to the Tribune, a parolee who served about half his sentence for armed robbery, killed a cop that was investigating a burglary to a garage and the car inside. The parolee saw them going through the backyard looking for evidence with the homeowner (a retired cop) and the parolee came over and shot both the cop and the homeowner. According to the most recent reports he saw one of them still moving, came up and shot both of them in the back of the head twice to make sure they were dead.

It turned out he lived right across the street with his grandmother.

But at least we can be happy about all that money it saved the state by releasing him early, right?

[PavePusher]

9. Got link?

I'm not normally to supportive of the death penalty, but this case, on the surface, seems to be tailor-made for it.

[Euromutt]

10. Here's one

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/no-bail-for-parolee-in-deaths-of-cop-ex-cha-officer.html?obref=obnetwork

Hey, looks like the shooter took a shot at another guy last June:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-cop-killed-1201-20101130,0,4949550.story

[Texasborncowboy]

11. This story is so sad.

It is also far too common. This guy was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to six years. I think that may have been too light of a sentence. He was paroled after three years, this is why he should have gotten a longer sentence.

This began with him stealing a stereo and ended with him giving two mortally wounded men "kill shots" just to make sure they were dead.

I guess I'm old school, I think you should serve the entirety of your sentence. Truth in sentencing laws are a step in the right direction but I think the name is misleading. Truth in sentencing laws generally for parole after %85 of the sentence is served.

[Euromutt]

13. I don't know that pre-emptively wrecking a convict's life is all that constructive

Look at this guy: imprisoned at age 16, released at age 19. They could have kept him in prison until he was, say, 26 or 36, but what good would that do? By the time the guy gets out, he's in his late twenties or older without so much as a high school degree; how is he ever going to become a productive member of society upon release? All he's good for is returning to a life of crime. As things stand, we might as well move towards executing everyone who receives a prison sentence; they have little prospect of gaining a life as a productive citizen after release, so why don't we cut to the chase and physically take away the rest of their lives?

Or--and here's a novel idea--we could demand the criminal justice system actually try to rehabilitate offenders; give them chances to earn GEDs and Associate Degrees while in the slammer, so that when they're released, they at least have some qualifications for a job. The problem is that this is also requires a shift in societal attitude towards ex-cons, that acknowledges that it is ludicrously easy to get incarcerated in America, practically without realizing sometimes that you're doing something wrong. Given how the system expects you to "pay your debt to society" by spending time in the slammer, society could at least pretend to accept that, by serving your sentence, you have "paid your debt" and "wiped the slate clean," rather than treating you as a pariah for life.

[dmallind]

12. my numbers are a few years old, but show this kind of thing is not rare

There were, and probably still are, more people killed by people convicted of capital crimes after their release, escape, or parole than have been executed since the DP was reinstated. In other words if every single executed person in that era were innocent, there still would have been more people killed by those who could legally have been executed but were spared it.