Another broad-daylight murder rattles Goldsboro

Note: We have been covering Goldsboro’s gun violence crisis in our sister print publication, Wayne Week, since our Debut Edition rolled off the press June 12, 2023. In this weekend’s paper, as part of our anniversary edition, we provided an update on the staggering number of shots-fired incidents — and rounds discharged — inside the city limits since January 1. So, when a 1:30 p.m. murder unfolded inside the Ash Street Food Lion this afternoon, we decided to share a modified version of that story with you on NewOldNorth.com

A Friday morning shooting that resulted in a 40-year-old being airlifted to ECU Health.

An 18-year-old who took a bullet along the 1000 block of Lincoln Drive four days earlier.

A May 25 murder that unfolded on Elm Street after shots were fired at just after 6 p.m.

A teenage girl shot and flown to Greenville for treatment.

A 21-year-old murdered — and an 18-year-old critically injured — during a June 5 gunfight.

And, today, an 18-year-old shot to death inside the Ash Street Food Lion at 1:34 p.m.

It has been only a month since a Wayne Week cover story unwrapped the staggering number of shots-fired incidents and rounds fired inside the city limits in 2024 after a teenager allegedly shot someone to death in broad daylight outside of a business located a stone’s throw away from downtown Goldsboro.

But in the 34 days since it was reported that 211 shooting incidents — and 1,176 rounds fired — had been logged by ShotSpotter since Jan. 1, another 16 shootings have transpired, and nearly 200 additional bullets have flown.

And while only seven homicides have been investigated this year by the Goldsboro Police Department, that number would be much higher, lawmen say, had the shooters accomplished what they set out to do when they pulled their respective triggers.

GPD Chief Mike West has told members of the City Council repeatedly that figuring out how illegal firearms are making their way into the city — and getting them off the streets — is Priority One for his officers.

But doing so, he contends, only can happen when his depleted ranks are made whole early next year.

And while pay increases approved in February after months of back and forth have resulted in a “flood” of applications from would-be rookie officers — men and women who, now that they have been vetted and hired, will have to complete Basic Law Enforcement Training before they start working the beat — that does not help in the short term.

City Councilwoman Jamie Taylor suggested that until staffing numbers inside the GPD are restored, it might be wise to ask for help from outside agencies.

“Do we call in the Feds to help us? All I know is that one life lost is too many,” she said. “What it’s going to take — somebody who is influential in this community getting killed in a drive-by shooting or by a stray bullet? Is that what it’s going to take for us to ask for the help we need?”

But West said that “you’re not going to get much help from the Feds.”

“I mean, they’re working with us when we get gun cases and arrests. If they can take a person through federal charges they will, so they’re assisting us there,” he said. “They’re just not boots on the ground.”

And as schools prepare to let out for the summer, it’s boots he needs.

“It’s not unusual. Regardless of what the current crime status is, business always picks up for us in the summertime. You’ve got young kids out of school with a lot of idle time on their hands,” West said. “So, we always see the numbers go up during the summertime. But this year, we’ve been preparing.”

Calling officers in on their days off and running weekly “ops” is a strategy he hopes will result in fewer gun-related incidents and homicides.

“What we typically see is that when we can get out and get boots on the ground in some of these hot areas — whether it’s Lincoln Homes or Fairview or around there — and we start putting people in jail and getting some guns off the street, things have a tendency to quiet down in the city,” West said. “People tend to hang low for a while.”

And if, despite depleted numbers, his officers agree to make the sacrifice it will take to consistently do just that, city residents will not have to wait until the end of the year to see a change.

“I think, I’m hoping, that we can head this thing off,” he said. “We just need to stay on it week after week after week.”

That, the chief believes, will buy the department — and the community — the time they need to realize a staffed-up GPD that can “do what we do best” with Gang Prevention, Selective Housing, and Vice units that are whole and “community policing” in full gear.

“For seven consecutive years, we dropped crime. We had the staffing, and we community policed. We were doing the pickup basketball games with the kids and going to different community functions,” West said. “Then, the George Floyd anti-police stuff hit and we started losing officers, and COVID hit and we had to disengage in the community. So, now, we’re trying to get back into the community policing, but we don’t have the staffing. So, I’m pretty confident that as we get our numbers back up toward the end of the year, we’ll be able to get back out into the community and do what we do best. And I think at that point, you will see a safer city.”

And according to a Facebook post from Mayor Charles Gaylor in the wake of today’s shooting inside Food Lion, it looks like the GPD is going to have some help.

“Through conversations with Chief West … we are requesting support from Sheriff Pierce and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office,” Gaylor said. “We are asking to reactivate the REACT teams to help address both the immediate investigation needs, but also the root causes of these violent acts.”

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