A little more than a month ago, I sat down with Ayden Police Chief David Dempsey to talk about shots fired within the town limits that threatened other homes in town. I didn’t have anything particularly in mind other than trying to try to find out if police had solved the case.
I was alerted to the March 16 shooting by people who live in the Ayden community. There was a lot of talk about the number of shots and the fact at least one shot went into an occupied home.
l was shocked at the news. Sure, things like this happen in lots of towns, and Ayden is not immune. In fact, Ayden has had to deal with many of society’s ills over the years. It boils down to police having to take strict measures to root out the evil in their communities. Ayden has done it well over time.
Chief Dempsey said his officers found that the shots came from a residence at 4211 Martin Luther King Jr. St. Factually, the shooting resulted in two homes being struck that evening. One was occupied and one was not.
Dempsey told me the shooting is still under investigation. He said 101 casings were found at the site, and police believe the incident is related to an issue that occurred on Allen Drive the night before.
One of the shots traveled a long way in the community — all the way over to Fifth Street where it went into an occupied home, about three blocks away. No one was injured.
Fortunately, the chief said the residents of the Martin Luther King Jr. Street home were evicted by the owner and are no longer living there.
As of my meeting with Chief Dempsey in April, the Ayden Police Department had responded to 13 calls for service related to gunshots. Dempsey said that most of these calls have been unfounded or have been identified as fireworks being exploded.
In all of 2023, the Ayden police responded to 90 calls for service that reported gunshots. Dempsey said most were unfounded. But police also deal with shootings where witnesses are uncooperative. Such was the case on Feb. 3, 2023, when an unidentified person was shot near the Kash & Karry. That victim refused to cooperate with police, essentially leaving it an open case.
It’s also difficult to prosecute these cases, especially considering random shootings. For example, despite the fact police were able to find the shell casings, in the case above, who pulled the trigger? Police were not able to put the weapon in the hands of any person.
The same occurs when a victim won’t cooperate by naming the perpetrator or perpetrators, or like a March 23, 2023, incident of shooting into an occupied dwelling on Third Street, police were not able to make an arrest for lack of knowing who the shooter was. Uncooperative witnesses and victims are not unusual for any police department’s effort to combat crime.
Ayden police were fortunate on May 20, 2023, when Jayquan and Jaymale Brown were both arrested for shooting into an occupied vehicle at 718 Third St. Both men are awaiting trial, Dempsey said.
Tyree Blount of Ayden was charged on Aug. 29, 2023, with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. He was convicted of a domestic violence offense, Dempsey said.
Ayden also has a 2020 homicide case awaiting trial. The case involves Travis Rosenboro, who is charged with homicide in the death of Khadafi Barnes.
Ayden also has two 2022 cases awaiting trial for homicide. Stephon Rogers awaits trial on a homicide charge against Anthony Sutton, while Akyree Collins-Smith is awaiting trial on homicide charges against Walter Cooley and Keenan Smith.
What is sad to me is that politicians coined the phrase of “defunding the police,” that has created real issues with police being able to police. People are leaving law enforcement, and the profession has become less popular. I can see why, especially in the environment in which they have to work.
In his report, “Addressing Law Enforcement Labor Shortages,” Charlie Chapman writes, “During 2020-21, resignations among police officers nationwide increased by 18% when compared to previous years. During the same period, retirements among officers increased by nearly 50%, while new officers hired decreased by 5%. Efforts around North Carolina to alleviate police staffing shortages focus on better preparing and training future officers and placing emphasis on the community service aspects of the position.”
The Winston-Salem Police Department in 2022 faced a staffing shortage of 100 officers or 20% of their force, Chapman said. “While some of the current labor shortage in law enforcement can be traced to general economic trends of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts also attribute much of it to changing attitudes about policing after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer.”
From my perspective, any town that wants to cut police personnel to balance their budgets needs to give it a different thought. People move to safe communities. Communities that are not well-policed are safe havens for criminals.
Having a safe community is much more important than an extra secretary, or for that matter, most anything else in a governing board’s budget.
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