‘This has to stop!’ Officials call for tougher sentencing for killers of children, elderly
File Photo: Alan Mauldin
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — Janayshia Stephens, 2, … Camyria Arnold, 3, … Nyelle Garrison, 2, … Jalen Walker, 15.
On Thursday, District Attorney Greg Edwards solemnly recited a list of young people who have been killed in acts of gun violence in the city.
The most recent tragic taking of a young life occurred on Aug. 8, when 9-year-old Nigel Brown was struck by a bullet intended for someone else while he lay sleeping in his home. The killers in the earlier cases have been convicted and imprisoned, the district attorney said, and the Albany Police Department believes it is close to solving the latest shooting of a child.
The 9-year-old’s death has galvanized the community as well as lawmakers and law enforcement, and on Thursday they unveiled proposed legislation to make sentences tougher for those who murder a child or elderly person.
“As for our children, we find that the death of Nigel Brown, a child, is a tragedy,” Edwards said during a Thursday news conference announcing the initiative. “However, we find in this the positive opportunity (to) use our law to say that our children are our most precious resource.
“We want our law to be the expression of how we value lives to serve as prevention for the further loss of life by a person becoming a killer.”
The proposed legislation, which has been named “Nigel’s Law,” would mandate life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in homicides in which a child under 18 or senior citizen over the age of 65 is a victim.
“We are asking our lawmakers to say that if you are convicted of killing our precious children or killing our venerated elders, you are not coming back,” Edwards said.
The district attorney also previously has advocated for tougher laws for gun possession for convicted felons who possess a firearm.
“Gang members frequently post on social media the guns that they have,” he said. “They get convicted of crimes and they return and get strapped back up. Drug dealers have guns as tools of the trade.”
Albany Police Chief Michael Persley used the occasion to dispel rumors and give some details of the series of incidents that led to Nigel’s death.
Member’s of the 9-year-old’s family, who had attended his funeral earlier that day, were in the audience.
“Yolander Brown (mother) and other family members were not the target that night,” Persley said. “Yolander Brown had nothing to do with (this). Anyone who is spreading these rumors should be ashamed.”
On the night of the slaying, an initial incident occurred at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Oakridge Drive in which shots were fired at a car the chief said. The driver being fired upon tried to flee the pursuing assailant but was followed to a residence in the area of Westover Boulevard and Gordon Avenue.
“They fired one round, and one round went into (the Brown’s) house,” Persley said.
The chief asked anyone with knowledge of the events to contact police, no matter how trivial it may seem.
“It is important to us,” he said. “We reviewed video surveillance throughout the area and received a lot of information. I want to make sure we get enough information not only to make an arrest, but to make a conviction.”
State Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, who attended the news conference, said during a Thursday telephone interview that the legislation could be considered either during a special session this year or during the General Assembly’s regular session.
“When we have the special session, the governor is going to make the call for reapportionment, and he may — may — add some things like public safety,” he said. “If he does, that offers this legislation the opportunity to go forward. Otherwise, it would be January.”
The legislation could be assigned either to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, of which Greene is a member, or the Judicial Committee, the longtime lawmaker said.
“I’m wanting to bring some kind of change, because of the crime that is so bad all over, not just Albany, Columbus, but all over the state,” he said. “I want to make sure law enforcement has the tools, (so) that when they make an arrest something can be done. We want to lift them up and do something to help them.”
The group of officials gathered included state Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany; and Dougherty County Commissioner Gloria Gaines, who helped organize the effort; Albany Mayor Bo Dorough and Albany City Commissioner Demetrius Young; Dougherty County Commissioner Ed Newsome and Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul.
In addition to the efforts being made to solve Nigel’s slaying, Dorough said the city must do more for at-risk young people in the city to help prevent them from becoming involved in criminal activity.
“When I went to the event for Nigel on Sunday, I was struck at how terrible this was,” said a visibly emotional Dorough. “I think, ‘what if one of my sons had been taken from me when he was 9?’ There would not have been baseball games. There would not have been proms. There would be no grandchildren.
“Our responsibility is to make sure there are not more young men and women taking this path that leads to the senseless death of a young boy.”
To Nigel’s mother, the mayor said, ‘“I grieve, you and this family grieves with you. This community won’t know what it’s like when it’s his 18th birthday. But we should.”
Gaines criticized the culture that produces the perpetrators of gun violence. The Albany Southwest Georgian, of which she is editor, previously avoided reporting heavily on violence and instead focused on uplifting the African-American Community, she said.
“But because this is such an egregious crime, this newspaper had to change that to be a voice (for what has happened),” she said. “This is not just about Nigel. We lack empathy. We lack compassion. We lack humanity.
“It is time to state ‘I’m sick and tired of it.’ This has to stop! You parents, you’ve got to start raising your children. You’ve got to start making the sacrifices that are necessary.”
At the close of the session, Yolander Brown made a plea for her son’s shooter to turn himself in and for those with information to come forward.
“I would like to seek justice for Nigel,” she said. “Gun violence needs to stop.”
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