{"id":33140,"date":"2022-06-25T13:25:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T13:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=33140"},"modified":"2022-06-25T13:25:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T13:25:35","slug":"highway-shootings-in-one-state-nearly-tripled-in-2-years-underscoring-grim-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/25\/highway-shootings-in-one-state-nearly-tripled-in-2-years-underscoring-grim-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Highway shootings in one state nearly tripled in 2 years, underscoring grim trend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>ALAMEDA, Calif. \u2014 On the morning of Nov. 18, Amani Morris was headed to a new job at a child care call center in the San Francisco Bay Area when her phone rang. It was her mother FaceTiming from Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>Alicia Benton wanted to talk, as she often did, to her two grandchildren. The boys, then ages 5 and 3, were in the car, along with Morris\u2019 fianc\u00e9, who was driving.<\/p>\n<p>Moments into the call, Morris, 29, interrupted and told her mother that she loved her and that she\u2019d speak to her after the orientation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that was the last time we spoke,\u201d Benton said.<\/p>\n<p>Minutes after they hung up, as the family approached the Bay Bridge, one of the busiest trans-bay crossings on one of the region\u2019s most congested sections of highway, gunfire struck their SUV, killing Morris.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div style=\"\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader noheight\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"Amani Morris. (NBC Bay Area)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/J6VWbIXdEBiFwUBg1WoFCQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/U2_462VoRyY7sws6RY524g--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/26b5c6e6369316e4e8b75f3c648f00f6\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Amani Morris. (NBC Bay Area)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/J6VWbIXdEBiFwUBg1WoFCQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/U2_462VoRyY7sws6RY524g--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/26b5c6e6369316e4e8b75f3c648f00f6\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Amani Morris. (NBC Bay Area)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The shooting, which remains unsolved, points to a grim trend in California and beyond \u2014 a rising number of highway shootings.<\/p>\n<p>In Michigan, where authorities started tracking the data only last year after they noticed an uptick, there were 67 in Detroit and its suburbs, a state police spokesman said.<\/p>\n<h3>Related video: How local officials can prevent gun violence in their cities<\/h3>\n<p>In California, reports of shootings more than doubled in the last three years, jumping from 210 in 2019 to nearly 500 in the first 11 months of 2021. Hundreds of people were injured, according to highway patrol data obtained through a public records request. Fifty died.<\/p>\n<p>And in Illinois, where there\u2019s been such a surge in expressway shootings that <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GovPritzker\/status\/1444011749452222480\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:the governor pleaded for them \u201cto stop,\u201d\" class=\"link \">the governor pleaded for them \u201cto stop,\u201d<\/a> authorities launched a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.cbslocal.com\/2022\/02\/07\/illinois-state-police-jb-pritzker-to-discuss-increase-enforcement-on-chicago-expressways\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:well-publicized response\" class=\"link \">well-publicized response<\/a> announcing arrests and introducing efforts to blunt the violence. Included were <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/9f74a3ba8bf443f794a868e27289c1e8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:a public dashboard mapping every expressway shooting\" class=\"link \">a public dashboard mapping every expressway shooting<\/a> in the state since 2019 and a law named after Tamara Clayton, 55, a mail handler who was gunned down on her way to work three years ago. Her killing remains unsolved. The law called for installing high-definition license plate readers in dozens of spots on Chicago-area expressways.<\/p>\n<p><button class=\"link caas-button collapse-button\" aria-label=\"\" title=\"\" data-ylk=\"elm:readmore;slk:Story continues\">Story continues<\/button><\/p>\n<p>NBC News requested data from several other states, but authorities in Ohio, Arizona, Texas and Washington didn\u2019t respond. State officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, New York and Colorado said they don\u2019t track such shootings.<\/p>\n<h2>Low arrest rates<\/h2>\n<p>In two of the states surveyed, the trend has yielded another troubling data point \u2014 single-digit arrest rates in the vast majority of highway shootings, which aren\u2019t fatal. Last year in California, authorities took suspects into custody about 8 percent of the time in connection with confirmed shootings. In Illinois, suspects were arrested 5 percent of the time. Only in Michigan, where the rate was 32 percent, did authorities arrest people at a pace that matched national statistics.<\/p>\n<p>Although the FBI doesn\u2019t track freeway shooting arrests, it compiles \u201cclearance\u201d data \u2014 or the number of cases closed by arrest and other means \u2014 for all gun assaults. According to the agency, 31 percent of those crimes were cleared in 2019, the latest year for which full data are available. (It isn\u2019t clear whether Illinois counts its clearance data the same way as the FBI. The state police didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n<p>Homicide arrest rates in Illinois and California were higher, with authorities clearing 21 percent<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and 34 percent of their cases, respectively \u2014 although it isn\u2019t clear how those rates compare to national statistics. The FBI doesn\u2019t tally gun murder and homicide arrests.<\/p>\n<p>Experts who study clearance rates say unsolved gun violence can have a corrosive effect that criminologists are only beginning to understand, one that potentially exacerbates negative views of police and allows criminals to remain on the street.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCitizens view law enforcement as illegitimate, unresponsive and ill-equipped to ensure public safety,\u201d said Paige Vaughn, a professor of criminology and sociology at Spring Hill College in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>A highway patrol official in California described the crimes as formidable to investigate. In Michigan, a state police official said nonfatal shootings were less likely to be solved because victims and witnesses don\u2019t want to talk.<\/p>\n<p>For Benton \u2014 who recalled Morris as a \u201clife-size bright star\u201d with a captivating smile and a big personality \u2014 the loss of her daughter and many others in the East Bay is infuriating. \u201cI\u2019m angry, because something should have been done,\u201d she said. \u201cIf this were Hollywood or the Palisades, they\u2019d be on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a written statement, the California Highway Patrol said it takes \u201call incidents of violence extremely seriously and actively investigates each one with the intent of arresting those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What\u2019s behind the rising numbers? <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Officials in California began noticing an uptick in highway shootings that coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. When mandates were put in place, traffic patterns shifted and gun sales soared, said Ryan Stonebraker, the chief of California Highway Patrol\u2019s Protective Services Division.<\/p>\n<p>Stonebraker said he observed a slump in what the agency classified as gang-related highway shootings and a surge in gun violence prompted by road rage. From 2020 to 2021, the first category plummeted by 38 percent; the latter rose by 54 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stressors with the pandemic,\u201d Stonebraker said. \u201cThere are a lot of people that are unhinged, they\u2019re upset, or they\u2019re very concerned about safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAlthough these statistics are alarming, these are tragic, it\u2019s still rare considering the amount of people we have on some of the busiest freeways in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, the theory of pandemic-related stress combined with increased gun sales was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/road-rage-shootings-see-worst-year-record-2021-rcna22887?icid=recommended\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:advanced in a recent report\" class=\"link \">advanced in a recent report<\/a> from Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, which found that fatal road rage shootings more than doubled across the U.S. from 2019 to 2021. The report looked at all roads \u2014 not just interstates \u2014 and suggested that the trend didn\u2019t appear to be slowing.<\/p>\n<p>In Michigan, investigators weren&#8217;t sure what was behind the jump, State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said. In Illinois, a state police spokeswoman declined to discuss the issue; in an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/investigations\/heres-the-full-list-of-all-185-chicago-expressway-shootings-this-year\/2626031\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:interview with NBC Chicago\" class=\"link \">interview with NBC Chicago<\/a>, Maj. Matthew Gainer attributed a \u201cvery small percentage\u201d of the shootings to road rage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s targeted violence of opportunity, where somebody has a beef with somebody else, and they happen upon them, and it happens to be on the interstate,\u201d he told the station. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said \u201cdangerous gang members\u201d are behind the spike.<\/p>\n<p>In California, the shootings were recorded across vast swaths of the state \u2014 in the Bay Area, in Southern California, in the Central Valley. Interstate 80, the highway that Morris and her fianc\u00e9 were driving on when she was fatally shot, recorded the most outbreaks of gun violence from 2020 to the first 11 months of last year, 73, according to state data.<\/p>\n<p>Interstate 580, which snakes from the Central Valley into the Bay Area, was second, with 69.<\/p>\n<p>While freeway violence isn\u2019t new, Stonebraker said, the state had never before had that kind of jump. In a shooting two weeks before Morris&#8217; \u2014 on a section of freeway a few miles away \u2014 23-month-old Jasper Wu was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcbayarea.com\/news\/local\/northbound-i-880-closed-in-oakland-due-to-shooting-chp\/2721638\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:killed while he slept in his car seat\" class=\"link \">killed while he slept in his car seat<\/a>. In February, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CalMBBall\/status\/1492297429676298241\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bay Area basketball legend Gene Ransom\" class=\"link \">Bay Area basketball legend Gene Ransom<\/a> was killed on the same highway, Interstate 880.<\/p>\n<p>A suspect was arrested hours after Ransom was gunned down. Jasper\u2019s fatal shooting remains unsolved.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div style=\"\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader noheight\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"Jasper Wu. (Courtesy Family via Carl Chan)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/bnbtMOSSjUW8SkLyawNkYg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/WjnlqBlnj680lf8RlydNtw--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/bdf042e91468fef694e156e43afdbfef\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jasper Wu. (Courtesy Family via Carl Chan)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/bnbtMOSSjUW8SkLyawNkYg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/WjnlqBlnj680lf8RlydNtw--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/bdf042e91468fef694e156e43afdbfef\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Jasper Wu. (Courtesy Family via Carl Chan)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Jasper\u2019s parents declined to be interviewed. Carl Chan, a real estate agent and advocate who has worked with the family since the boy\u2019s death, said the couple hoped other families wouldn\u2019t have to endure their pain.<\/p>\n<p>Chan said that $10,000 offered by the Crimes Against Asians Reward Fund remained available for information leading to an arrest and prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was not being targeted,&#8221; said Chan, who is also the president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, a sponsor of the fund. &#8220;It was a stray bullet. That bullet could be you, me, your family member, your loved one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>&#8216;The challenge of the freeway shooting environment&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Wide gaps between arrests in fatal and nonfatal shootings aren\u2019t unusual. Anthony Braga, a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/media4.manhattan-institute.org\/sites\/default\/files\/improving-police-clearance-rates-shootings-review-evidence-AB.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote in a paper last year\" class=\"link \">wrote in a paper last year<\/a> that they\u2019re pervasive among police agencies that study the issue: Homicide detectives tend to be in dedicated units with relatively light caseloads and priority access to prosecutors and crime labs. Detectives investigating nonfatal shootings, meanwhile, are often non-specialists handling a variety of crimes and don\u2019t follow up beyond initial investigations. \u201cFailures to make arrests can lead to a cascade of retaliatory gun violence,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois State Police didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment about how it investigates expressway shootings. In California, Stonebraker said beat officers and investigators from one of the agency\u2019s 103 local offices respond to initial calls. But if a shooting is fatal, a more specialized detective is likely to handle the investigation, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Stonebraker pointed to several factors that make a shooting on a freeway difficult to investigate: It\u2019s not a static environment \u2014 it\u2019s a place defined by constant motion and, at least during the day, blaring noise.<\/p>\n<p>Shell casings, if they are found, might be in an entirely different place from where they started. Gunfire might not be heard above the din of traffic. Potential witnesses might not think twice about a car pulling over. And victims of nonfatal shootings might not contact authorities until they\u2019re home \u2014 and they might not know where on the freeway their car was shot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get a lot of people that don\u2019t even know they\u2019ve been shot at and they find a bullet hole in their car,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to articulate \u2014 did that come from the freeway?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That, Stonebraker said, \u201cis the challenge of the freeway shooting environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stonebraker said his department has increased patrols in areas that have had the most shootings. And officials have sought more training for investigators and funding for technology like closed-circuit TV cameras and license plate readers. A similar effort is underway in Illinois, where authorities this year announced the introduction of hundreds of license plate readers and an air operations team, among other measures.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div style=\"\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader noheight\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"Tamara Clayton. (Jayla Shelton)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/h6m11G5PL_Qmh8mkolHLsg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/cr5.ZRbM8lR0hS1V7ei_BQ--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/98ff63ce6bbfc5e633970536d7ae5426\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tamara Clayton. (Jayla Shelton)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/h6m11G5PL_Qmh8mkolHLsg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/cr5.ZRbM8lR0hS1V7ei_BQ--~B\/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/98ff63ce6bbfc5e633970536d7ae5426\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Tamara Clayton. (Jayla Shelton)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>To Jayla Shelton, Illinois\u2019 push to address the violence that took the life of her mother, Tamara Clayton, a single mom who worked the graveyard shift for decades to send her to private school, was a good start.<\/p>\n<p>The cameras offer a way \u201cfor some people to get caught that need to be caught.\u201d But she worried that they\u2019re nowhere near enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have no other predators to worry about,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know they have a slim chance of being caught. People can\u2019t defend themselves because they\u2019re driving.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the three years since her mother\u2019s killing, Shelton, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., has struggled to find peace. And she remains fearful that she might lose someone in her husband\u2019s family, who still live in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a constant struggle,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all have to live with that for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/highway-shootings-one-state-nearly-095509903.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] ALAMEDA, Calif. \u2014 On the morning of Nov. 18, Amani Morris was headed to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33142,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33140\/revisions\/33142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}