Homicide rate at half the total of previous two years

As Chattanooga marches into July with a homicide rate that's about half the total seen at this point in the last two years, investigators are working to uncover what happened in the city's ninth killing this year.

Police responded to the 2300 block of Hickory Valley Road around 1:30 a.m. Friday and found the resident of the home, 46-year-old Christopher Robinson, with a gunshot wound, according to a news release. He died from his injuries before paramedics arrived.

Investigators determined someone forcibly entered the home and shot Robinson, but police have not released to the public any more information about the shooter. Authorities requested Friday morning that witnesses call the homicide tip line at 423-643-5100, reminding residents they can remain anonymous.

Still, this year's homicide and shooting incident rates are well below where they've been at this point in years past, thanks in large part to an appreciable decrease in the number of shootings involving gang members. Nonfatal shootings involving gang members are down to 18 compared to 26 at this point last year and 43 the year before that - a year that saw an unusally violent gang war.

Homicides involving gang members are down to 5, compared to 10 in 2017 and 11 in 2016. Chattanooga has seen only four homicides that did not involve gang members. By July of last year, that total had already crept up to nine victims.

Chattanooga police Chief David Roddy said there are multiple things that have led to both a decrease in homicides as well as an increase in arrests being made, including community engagement by police, the efforts of the victim services unit and the creation of the homicide tip line, all of which have helped push the department's clearance rate above 80 percent this year.

"The decrease in homicides and shootings Chattanooga is experiencing is the direct result of the entire Chattanooga Police Department's dedication to uphold its mission to keep you, your family and our community safe coupled with the investment from community members who take an active role in making our city a safer place to live, work, and play," he wrote in an emailed statement.

He said the addition of the Real-Time Intelligence Center has been invaluable to the department by equipping analysts to identify crime trends. Neighborhood policing supervisors and specialized units use that information to deploy officers effectively.

Collaboration with local, state and federal criminal justice partners also has helped.

"Working with the Hamilton County District Attorney General's Office to present evidence that's led to putting some of the main violent offenders in jail and keeping them there also contributes to the decrease in violent crime we're experiencing," Roddy said.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted 54 Athens Park Bloods gang members earlier this year - the first time a street gang in Hamilton County has been prosecuted as a criminal enterprise under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The defendants face a long list of charges, and prosecutors claim seven of them are connected to five homicides.

One of those homicides in the historic indictment was that of Bianca Horton, a woman who authorities say was killed to prevent her from testifying at trial that she witnessed Cortez Sims, one of the men indicted, murder another woman. The charges stemmed from a coordinated, months-long effort between Roddy and District Attorney General Neal Pinkston to use Pinkston's cold case unit to review a string of unsolved homicides.

Sims later was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in that case.

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke also attributed the progress not to a single program or policy, but to years of work in several agencies across a wide variety of areas.

"I want people both to be safer and feel safer," Berke said. "The numbers are showing that gun violence continues to decline in our city, and I am hearing from more people that they feel the difference."

However, he did point to investments in technology and in staffing the Chattanooga Police Department's new gun unit as examples of how the city is increasing its capacity to respond to gun violence.

"We're continuing to build out our work within the police department to stop people from committing gun violence," he said. "The gun team is expanding and improving their work. We have more information being collected about the few people who drive the violence in our community, and we are getting better at holding them accountable. That's a huge piece of solving the problem."

The Chattanooga City Council also recently approved funding for three "navigators" who will operate out of the Family Justice Center and work on connecting both at-risk teens and adult ex-offenders with wraparound support services to keep them out of lives of crime. The city's public safety coordinator will vet individuals before handing them over to the navigators, two of whom will work with teenagers while the third will handle adults.

Both the offering of social services and the stiff prosecution of gang members are in line with the fundamental model of the Violence Reduction Initiative. The initiative is intended to drive down violence by targeting the small number of people behind most of the shootings in the community while supporting those looking to stop being part of the problem.

Berke said those support services build relationships within the community, which in turn help law enforcement officials in their work. He said his office will continue leveraging what resources it can to help police.

"This is long-term work, and so we continue to support the really hardworking people in our police department who are finding new ways to get information about those who either have or are about to commit gun crimes in our community," he said.

Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.