Roanoke's murders up; violent crime (overall) down

Interactive Roanoke murder map See where murders took place, victim and suspect names and story links.

By: WSLS-TV Staff Reports | WSLS
Published: July 18, 2008

The shooting at a Williamson Road convenience store in February that left the store's owner dead, was the second murder of the year.

Before that Kiara Brown was killed in a murder suicide on Mayo Drive.
In March Donna Dudley was also killed in a murder suicide. Both domestic killings.
In April -- robbery was the likely motive in the death of Marvin Lawson.
In early May -- James Stokes was gunned down on Hunt Avenue. Police are still searching for the two suspects.
Then In June, three murders, William Linn killed, police say by his teenage ex girlfriend.
John Rivera -- shot in his car on Melrose on June 15.
And Kendra Jones, killed on Salem Turnpike in another domestic murder.

Police say murders can be solved, but they are difficult to prevent -- in any city.

“Homicide is something I don't know anyone who can put their finger on how we stop it,” said Roanoke Police Captain Chris Perkins.

So what are we to make of Roanoke's apparent upswing?

Plotted on a map, you can see a large number of them happened in Northwest Roanoke.
Remove the domestic killings and there are four crimes remaining -- shown in green. All in high crime areas, and police say, all related to drugs.

“An ounce of crack cocaine in Roanoke is worth more than an ounce of gold. What's gold? 750-dollars an ounce? The average price of an ounce of crack cocaine goes for anywhere from 850 to 12-hundred dollars in the city,” Perkins said.

According to Perkins, all of the crimes have been solved – to the extent that there has been an arrest or a warrant issued in all of the murders. He attributes that to better cooperation from the public. It is, he says, the decline of the “no snitches” era.

“I think when people live in a situation where violence is occurring in their community and they take the side of I want to do what's right -- I think that helps tremendously,” he said.

Although the number of murders is up considerably from one last year to eight this year during the same time frame, Perkins says the average number in Roanoke is 12 per year, and it’s not unusual for the number to be so high by July.