A home at 2014 Wilson St. that burned Wednesday night in Chattanooga.
A memorial to shooting victim Apprentice Dequan Berry, who was shot at the Woodlawn Apartments on Monday night and later died of his wounds at Erlanger Hospital, is seen outside of the apartments on Oct. 23, 2014.
Michael Heath, Madison Dillard, Ash-Lee Henderson and Janelle Jackson are seen in this composite photo.TIMELINEMonday* Apprentice Dequan Berry, 20, is shot to death around 11 p.m.* While Berry is in Erlanger hospital, police, sheriff’s deputies and a crowd of civilians clash outside around 11:30 p.m. Four people are arrested.Tuesday* Local black clergy call a meeting to discuss Monday’s events. Police and some city employees attend.Wednesday* Kenny Hall, 24, is shot to death around 1 p.m.* A 16-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy are shot around 5 p.m. Police say the incident is not related to the day’s earlier shooting. The injuries are not life-threatening.* Four members of a small group of protesters are arrested around 10 p.m. for refusing to leave the middle of the intersection at Main and Market streets. The protesters were demonstrating against violence and what they called police brutality.Thursday* The Violence Reduction Initiative held a call-in, in which violent offenders were told to turn their lives around or face the consequences.Sources: Chattanooga Police Department, City of Chattanooga Times Free Press archives
In a 48-hour span this week, two Chattanooga men were shot to death, two teenagers were wounded by gunfire and local law enforcement clashed twice with groups of civilians, arresting four people in each incident.
The events have put neighborhoods and communities on edge and raised tensions, even while local leaders call for patience as facts about incidents are nailed down.
Pastor Bobby Hampton of Hawkinsville Baptist Church is one of many clergy members who organized a meeting Tuesday after law enforcement and citizens clashed at Erlanger hospital while the week’s first shooting victim, 20-year-old Apprentice Berry, was inside.
Hampton said clergy are concerned, but want to understand exactly what happened before responding to the week’s violence and the events that followed.
“It’s not just [what happened at] Erlanger,” he said. “Everything that happened in the last few days, we’re concerned about. But we’re trying to wait until the police do their investigation before we react. We’re trying to gather facts.”
He added that Tuesday’s meeting was intended as an information session and that the large number of clergy who attended showed that the community took what happened Monday seriously.
And while some attendees characterized the meeting as a way to quell Ferguson-like unrest, Sean O’Brien, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Rock City Lodge 22, said comparisons between this week in Chattanooga and the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, are unfair.
“Our members who are active law enforcement are very conscious of the heightened public perception that comes from an incident like Ferguson, but they also do not want to carry the burden of something that did not occur here,” he said.
Police Chief Fred Fletcher opened an internal affairs investigation into the clash at Erlanger to see whether police acted appropriately, and Mayor Andy Berke said he will wait to comment on the officers’ actions until the investigation concludes. But he acknowledged the incident was unfortunate at the site where a young man died.
“Nobody wants to see that, particularly our police department,” Berke said. “We’re going to talk with the hospital about how we can make sure we have better circumstances in the future.”
Berke said the police department has been trying its best to have positive interactions with the community but he said that’s not always possible.
Since that incident happened, a second man, 24-year-old Kenny Hall, was shot to death and two teenagers wounded in separate incidents Wednesday.
Hall’s cousin, Sheronda Shaw, said he was a sweet guy who was a great father.
“He’s not a bad person,” she said. “He made some poor choices in life, but he didn’t deserve to be killed. He was young. At 24, their heads are hard.”
Violence of any sort is unacceptable, said Latoya Holloman, founder of Loving My Community, an East Lake anti-violence group.
“Violence is violence,” she said. “We’re tired of it. I think we have just become numb to the violence.”
Holloman was part of a small group of protesters who demonstrated against violence and what they called police brutality Wednesday night, as part of a national day of protests. The group waved signs, shouted chants and swirled hula-hoops as they marched up and down city sidewalks.
A couple of hours after the protest began, the group entered the intersection of Main and Market streets and blocked traffic, according to police.
“They sat down in the middle of the road,” said Capt. Corliss Cooper.
Police ordered the group to leave the intersection several times while directing traffic around the protesters, she said. Eventually, all but four of the protesters moved out of the road. The remaining four, Ash-Lee Henderson, 29, Janelle Jackson, 34, Michael Heath, 22, and Madison Dillard, 20, were arrested and charged with inciting to riot and obstructing a highway. Jackson was also charged with resisting arrest.
None of the arrested protesters could be reached for comment Thursday.
On Saturday, three days after Henderson’s arrest, she will sit down with Fletcher and other community leaders on a panel to discuss tension between the community and the local police department.
On Thursday night, officials held a call-in as part of the city’s Violence Reduction Initiative, a news release from the city stated. Law enforcement officials, social service workers and clergy members and others told about 20 violent offenders that violence must stop and that they will be offered help if they want to turn their lives around. If they don’t stop engaging in violence, law enforcement will go after them.
“We will not tolerate this violence — and tonight’s call-in is just another our effort to make our streets safe,” Fletcher stated in the release.
The call-in was scheduled weeks in advance, although it occurred after a week of violence, the release stated.
This week’s violence is the reason why the community needs to have an honest conversation about the violence and bickering between authorities and residents, said Dennis Clark, spokesman for Hope for the Inner City.
“We should be able to have an honest conversation with people we disagree with,” said Clark. “We need to continue the conversation that we still have an epidemic in our community and everybody is responsible for it.”
Hope for the Inner City, the nonprofit that helps run Chattanooga’s Violence Reduction Initiative, is hosting the conference on Saturday that will discuss race relations and other tense issues in the community, such as churches’ involvement in stopping the violence.
Staff writer Joy Smith contributed to this report.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.