06-30-2006, 12:16 AM
Neighborhood worried about recent violence
SARASOTA - A Sarasota neighborhood is crying out for help after a 17-year-old girl is killed and a 49-year-old man is shot.
The two incidents were unrelated, but they happened only an hour and a half apart, and on the same street. Now, neighbors want to know what's happening on 24th Street.
Police say that in the past year they've had 354 incident reports for 24th Street, which averages out to about one incident a day, and police say most of them are traffic-related.
It’s certainly much more upsetting for those who live on that street.
Roshanda Conaway is the victim's friend. "I couldn't even go to sleep without thinking about it. It was very hard to think about."
A 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death outside a house Wednesday afternoon, and her accused killer is another 17-year-old girl that lives just across the street.
"It's peer pressure with the young people having nothing to do, and they will get into something," says friend April Glasco.
A couple of miles down the road, just an hour and a half earlier, deputies were called to a domestic disturbance at another house. They say 49-year-old William Carter came at them with a knife, so they shot him.
Police say the two incidents are not related and there's not a problem in the neighborhood.
"What it suggests is a coincidence that two serious incidents happen on the same day on the same street," says Jay Frank of the Sarasota Police Department.
However, people who live around there disagree.
"The root of the problem is that these people are poor, and they're in a city where people would rather ignore them," says neighbor Andre Sas. "I hope this will do something to let people know we need some help out here."
"It's just telling all of us we need to get ourselves together. We need to think about our young people," says April.
Police say they do feel as if they have strong presence in that area, and that overall crime is down. As for the 17-year-old girl who was stabbed, her friends say that the fight was over baby shoes and then escalated into more.
The teen girl accused of killing her is charged with second-degree murder, and is out on bond.
SARASOTA - A Sarasota neighborhood is crying out for help after a 17-year-old girl is killed and a 49-year-old man is shot.
The two incidents were unrelated, but they happened only an hour and a half apart, and on the same street. Now, neighbors want to know what's happening on 24th Street.
Police say that in the past year they've had 354 incident reports for 24th Street, which averages out to about one incident a day, and police say most of them are traffic-related.
It’s certainly much more upsetting for those who live on that street.
Roshanda Conaway is the victim's friend. "I couldn't even go to sleep without thinking about it. It was very hard to think about."
A 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death outside a house Wednesday afternoon, and her accused killer is another 17-year-old girl that lives just across the street.
"It's peer pressure with the young people having nothing to do, and they will get into something," says friend April Glasco.
A couple of miles down the road, just an hour and a half earlier, deputies were called to a domestic disturbance at another house. They say 49-year-old William Carter came at them with a knife, so they shot him.
Police say the two incidents are not related and there's not a problem in the neighborhood.
"What it suggests is a coincidence that two serious incidents happen on the same day on the same street," says Jay Frank of the Sarasota Police Department.
However, people who live around there disagree.
"The root of the problem is that these people are poor, and they're in a city where people would rather ignore them," says neighbor Andre Sas. "I hope this will do something to let people know we need some help out here."
"It's just telling all of us we need to get ourselves together. We need to think about our young people," says April.
Police say they do feel as if they have strong presence in that area, and that overall crime is down. As for the 17-year-old girl who was stabbed, her friends say that the fight was over baby shoes and then escalated into more.
The teen girl accused of killing her is charged with second-degree murder, and is out on bond.