It wasn’t too long ago, maybe a week or two, when somebody said to me, “Does it seem like there’s been less gunfire lately?”
Yes, I agreed, it did. Fellow McComb residents know what I’m talking about.
The random gunfire that could be heard all too regularly has died down after several years — and several deaths and injuries.
I have never felt at risk in my home. The bad thing was that I got used to hearing six or eight rapid-fire shots every so often. It wasn’t every night, but at the peak it definitely was three or four times per week.
The way sound carries, it’s hard to tell how far away the shooting was. I believe most of what I heard was coming from south of my home. Sometimes southeast.
My guess is that most of the time, somebody was just pointing a gun up in the air rather than shooting at a house or a car or a person. It doesn’t matter. It’s not a good advertisement for a small town’s safety and livability.
But since what goes up must come down, the thing I was most worried about, once I became accustomed to the noise, was one of the bullets coming through my roof.
I write all that to write about the Monday, Feb. 17 gunfire on Wheelock Street, where police said they found at least 40 shell casings.
Our story said the shooting was in the 900 block of Wheelock, which is three blocks north of Delaware Avenue.
The story said police found “neither a victim nor a suspect” after the 5 p.m. shooting. As this was about two blocks from my first home in McComb, back in the 1980s, I drove over Friday to have a look for myself.
I drove the five blocks of Wheelock from Highway 51 to West Street about four times, traveling slowly, looking for property damage like shot-out windows or bullet holes in a door or the walls of homes. I saw nothing.
Maybe I just overlooked any damage. Or maybe, even though I doubt it, the gunfire occurred somewhere besides the 900 block. I figure someone will read this, call me and tell me exactly where to look.
I always liked this neighborhood. My duplex was at the corner of Burke Street and New York Avenue. Lura Cowart, the mother of property owner Betty Spence, lived in the other half of the home.
She was always nice to me, as was a retired guy across the street named Eddie Collins, who cut his lawn with one of those old-time mowers that didn’t have an engine.
A couple of doors up Burke Street were Warren and Mary Beth Miller. Their two daughters, Lauren and Leslie, were flower girls at my wedding.
The location was so good that I was among the few McComb residents who could comfortably walk to the local movie theater, which was two blocks away. I do miss that theater, a building now part of the McComb High School campus. Saw a lot of great movies there.
After that Monday’s gunfire, I saw an online post from someone who grew up nearby, lamenting where it had happened. I agree, although unloading 40 bullets is horrible no matter where it occurs.
One guy I know used to live two blocks north of Wheelock in 2023. He mentioned hearing gunshots.
I said, it’s definitely a problem, and it takes some getting used to, but you’re not the person they’re aiming at. That mini-pep talk didn’t work; he left town a few weeks later.
I don’t know the whole story behind Monday’s shooting. But it almost sounds like some guys were driving around and decided to open fire just anywhere, and to do it just for fun, just because they could get away with it, instead of intending to damage a particular person or house.
If that’s not the case, then where’s the property damage, or the injured or killed people who were the targets?
The good news is that the gunfire has not resumed in the days since the Wheelock Street barrage. At least I haven’t heard anything from my house.
No doubt part of this is due to good police work. It would be nice to believe that some of the younger shooters are rethinking their reckless behavior, but I fear we’re not done with this trend just yet.
