As of press time this week, Indianola’s murder rate stood at five for 2019.
Violent crime during the past 12 months has taken a particularly hard toll on young men in the community, between the lives taken and the lives ruined over the deadly shootings.
IPD Chief Edrick Hall told The E-T this week that Indianola typically averages three murders a year.
“It’s definitely higher than normal,” he said.
Hall also noted the rise in the dangerous act of people shooting randomly into the air, something that is especially popular during the celebration of the new year.
That too can come with dire consequences, he said.
“There was a man in Greenville who went outside and shot an assault rifle into the air, and the bullet came down and killed a child,” Hall said. “That man was charged with murder.”
Hall said local violence has been especially tough to fight with young people.
“The younger generation doesn’t seem to have any regard for life or property, nor the consequences that come with it,” he said.
Hall said it will take a concerted effort from the entire community to combat this problem, including folks close to these situations speaking up ahead of time. “A lot of times, we find out after the fact about stuff posted on Facebook and no one had brought it to our attention that they had been feuding for a long time,” Hall said.
Hall said he hopes that people who are fighting will find other ways to work out their differences.
“All of the murders in 2019 were senseless acts of violence,” Hall said. “They certainly should not have ended in murder.”
In April, a shooting took the life of DeAubrey Roscoe, a 24-year-old Indianola man.
Two suspects, Samuel Barnard Barnes and Damian Desmond Buck turned themselves into Indianola police shortly after the shooting.
A June shooting took the life of D’Angelo Davis.
The suspect in that case, Stephon Snipes, was 20 years old at the time.
Marcus Hutchins, 36, was shot in October, and the suspect in that case was 23-year-old Leradric Gardner.
Marrio Terrell Applewhite was gunned down in September. The suspects in the 31-year-old’s murder were 29-year-old Lexus James and 21-year-old Gereal Scott Galloway.
Travis Shaw, 28, was the latest shooting victim in Indianola this year.
The suspect charged in that case is Ladarius Snipes.
Several other communities around the area have seen their own rash of violence this year.
The town of Sunflower began to mobilize a couple of months ago after a string of shootings in the small town.
