A recent rash of shootings in the small town of Sunflower has left some residents rattled and calling for action, and Mayor Desiree Norwood, along with Sheriff James Haywood said they are working toward addressing the community’s concerns.
Haywood said the small Delta town, with a population just over a thousand people, has been hit with several incidents of gunfire over the past few weeks and a lot of it involves young people and seems to stem from retaliation.
In an interview on Monday, Haywood said, “We’ve gotta address this, this is not Sunflower.” He said the culprits are mainly young kids. “These parents gotta get a holt of them.”
In one of the most recent attacks, Haywood said, “Last week, a car got shot in from Ruleville, unidentified people were passing through and their car got shot.” That allegedly caused another weekend shooting that was likely in retaliation to the earlier gunfire.
After the alleged weekend incident, a resident took to Facebook and declared in a post, “U can’t even sleep at night without hearing gun shots or kids can’t enjoy there self in the day without them running for there lives.”
Little or no arrests have been made, but Haywood said it is not from lack of trying. “It’s kind of hard to arrest somebody when you get called to a call and you gotta go to the call and you can’t find nobody,” Haywood said. He stressed that in those situations you only have a general idea of what’s going on.
The Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department has been assisting the town with law enforcement since it is currently experiencing a shortage of law enforcement personnel. Although Norwood said the town is in the process of hiring new officers that she expects to be on the job by the end of the week, they currently do not have a chief and only one full-time and one part-time officer.
“Basically Sunflower needs policemen and we’re helping them out, but we need the public to get involved in stuff,” Haywood said. He called the careless discharging of the firearms “nonsense” and he and Norwood advocate for the need of parental involvement. One of the ways Norwood said they plan to call for community and parental involvement is through what she is calling a “National Night Out Against Crime,” which she said is planned for this week.
Her hope is to relieve the stress and tension caused by the shooting incidents and remind the community that great things can happen if they pull together. Norwood acknowledged that the actions of a few have created a “very dangerous” environment for the entire community. The shootings affect us all, she said.
Norwood said she wants the public to feel safe, be proud of their town and not have to live in fear. Haywood added that he thinks things are going to get better with this town meeting.
Haywood also added, “We’re going to organize a neighborhood watch up there we’re going to have a town meeting, we’re going to try to solve some of this, its just crazy.”
In addition to the meetings and “watch” programs Norwood said they are also reviewing the town’s curfew policy for possible changes and will instruct the police to strictly enforce it. She said her biggest concern about the escalating gunfire incidents is coming up with solutions to “stop it.”
Additionally, she is working on mentoring programs, round-table discussions and other activities that will positively engage the young people of the town.
