Two-year-old Zoey Duncan hugs her mother Bianca Horton in January 2016. On Jan. 7, 2015, a gunman opened fire in Horton’s College Hill Courts apartment, killing 20-year-old Talitha Bowman and wounding three others, including Zoey, who barely survived. Zoey was paralyzed from the waist down. In May 2016, after testifying that Cortez Sims was the shooter, Bianca’s body was found. She had been shot six times.Fund offers help for witnesses
A day after Bianca Horton was shot and killed in May 2016, presumably for testifying in a local murder case, Mayor Andy Berke decided the city would create a “Witness Protection and Victim Assistance Fund.”The fund doesn’t actually offer protection, it pays for practical, immediate expenses that can help a witness or victim quickly become safer, Assistant Chief Tracy Arnold explained. Police can use the fund to buy a bus ticket for a witness to go live with an uncle in another city, or to pay for gas so a family can drive out of state.Caroline Huffaker, a victim services coordinator at the police department, said the department strives to provide help that goes beyond the money by working with victims and witnesses to make a plan for safety that stretches beyond the first few days or weeks.City officials said five families have been helped with fund money, which started with $11,000 in private donations and is now down to $3,000. Berke said he hopes private donations will be able to sustain the fund, but hasn’t ruled out using city money in the future.To donate to the Witness Support Fund, visit connect.chattanooga.gov/witnessfund or send a check payable to United Way, for Witness Support Fund, to 100 E. 11th St., Chattanooga, Tenn., 37402.– Shelly Bradbury, staff writer
The Chattanooga Police Department will not immediately enforce a temporary court order that prohibits 31 men accused of being gang members from associating with one another in East Lake Courts.
Although Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman approved a temporary “gang injunction” last month, authorities still need to train specific officers and develop policies and procedures before moving forward with the legal tool, police spokeswoman Elisa Myzal said last week.
“There are still a number of things to be done before enforcement can begin,” Myzal wrote in an email. “A requirement of the injunction presented by the District Attorney’s Office is to serve notice to all individuals named in the injunction. That is still a work in progress between [police], the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s office.”
When he unveiled the petition in September, Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston said the injunction would give police officers another legal tool to discourage violence among routine troublemakers who belong to two street gangs: the Grape Street Crips and the Gangster Disciples. An injunction is a court order that requires an entity to stop doing something, similar to a restraining order or a cease-and-desist letter.