By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

RESERVE – In response to a trio of unsolved murders in Reserve over the past two months, community leaders and elected officials gathered Thursday with a message to residents about breaking the silence regarding violence in neighborhoods.

The Rev. Donald Brown of Providence Baptist Church said the meeting was part of a restart of his Stop the Violence campaign, a series of quarterly meetings he organized in 2006 following the murders of three of his family members. Brown said he would like to see future meetings in Garyville, Edgard and LaPlace.

“If ever there was a time to rally around each other as a community, it is now,” Brown said to a room full of about 25 residents. “We do care and we are concerned. It is time for all of us to break the silence.”

The meeting comes on the heels of the murders of Jamar Vinnette, 23, and Eliza Fleming, 29, in May, and Frank Lewis, 42, on June 17. All three killings occurred within a 10-block radius in Reserve. The St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office said the murders of Vinnette and Fleming are related and that Lewis’ killing could also be related, pending forensic evidence that has not been returned yet.

Residents on Thursday heard remarks from Parish President Natalie Robottom, District Attorney Tom Daley and Sheriff Wayne Jones regarding the situation and what needs to be done to stop it. Robottom spoke about how the actions over the last several weeks affect all communities and not just Reserve.

“If we pretend it doesn’t, we are all in trouble,” Robottom said. “It is time we all stay vigilant and look out for our neighbors.”

Robottom, a former teacher in the St. John Parish School system, said it is particularly troubling to her when she sees the names of students she taught as victims of a crime or perpetrators of the act.

“I think family support is a big issue that we need to tackle,” she said. “We need to develop the trust to share information to stop the violence.”

Daley said in reading daily incident and arrest reports over the past year he has found that the biggest problem facing the parish when it comes to crime is gun violence executed by young men.

“When us older fellows had disputes, we settled it with fists, maybe a broken arm,” Daley said. “Now, they settle it with guns. I think the current escalation is abnormal, but I feel confident it will be addressed.”

Daley said the district attorney’s office has been taking steps to address the gun violence problem starting with making it more difficult for those arrested with guns to post bond. He also said the office is organizing alternative dispute resolution seminars in the high schools and junior high schools in the parish to address the conflict.

“The younger generation must learn to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner,” said Daley. “We need to tell our young people and our family members to leave their guns at home. We should not have a situation where you need a gun to feel safe on the streets.”

Daley also addressed a need for cooperation from the public when it comes to solving and prosecuting crime in the community. With a slight twinge of anger, Daley explained that in prosecuting the last two murder cases in St. John Parish, he has had to put witnesses in jail to get them to testify.

“They say that they don’t want to get involved and that it’s not their problem,” Daley said. “I told them that they need to decide between good and evil. We have to stand up for good. We have to stop the shooting.”

Jones said since forming his 11-man task force earlier this week to investigate the recent murders, calls to his office about the incidents have tripled. He said the investigators on the task force, who live in Reserve and know the community, have made great strides in finding the individuals responsible but added it is sometimes still hard to get potential witnesses to go on record. He said any resident who would feel more comfortable talking with the sheriff directly can call him at a secondary line at 504-401-1493.

“My focus now is bringing these people to justice so that the families and the community can move forward,” Jones said. “I know that we are all not in agreement with what has gone on in the community, so we need to do what we can to change it ourselves.”

The group also heard from Lewis’s sister Eliza Eugene, who stressed the importance of coming together to end the violence.

“My brother fell to his death on someone else’s front lawn, but tomorrow that could be on your front lawn,” Eugene said. “If you’re not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. We have to find these young men and young women and wrap our arms around them.”