While editing the “Suspect returned” story in last Friday’s paper about the extradition of a man accused of a fatal shooting in McComb last November, one item of information jumped out.
The story said the suspect is 45 years old, and I was skeptical of that. We’ve run many stories about teenagers or guys in their early 20s being charged in shootings. None of these incidents involved anybody as old as 45. By that age, the reckless temptation to shoot at people usually has simmered down.
Not in this case. I confirmed the date of birth that McComb police had given us, shook my head at the state of the world and finished reading the rest of the front page.
That gave me the idea to call McComb Police Chief Juan Cloy for an assessment on his department’s efforts to stop the gunfire.
It remains a work in progress, stymied by two elements: the need for more officers and, perhaps more importantly, the unwillingness of people who have information about crimes to disclose what they know.
“The lack of assistance we get from the public that knows, that is one of the most disheartening things for me,” Cloy said. “You would think if somebody hurt your friend and you knew something about it, you would say something.
“I cannot tell you how many times we’ve been to the hospital after a shooting and there are 50 people there, and you can tell the ones that were there when it happened and they won’t say anything.
“That’s just an excuse,” he said. “What are you going to do, go get the one who did it on your own?”
“Every blue moon, we may get somebody to come tell us. Eventually, somebody will sneak a phone call to us. But it’s nothing that we expect. I don’t expect a call.”
Cloy has told the city board that it needs to increase police pay to attract good officers. He said he gets a number of applications but many do not pass a background test, and he’s “not going to hire just anybody.”
He said the police department could put a dent in the city’s gunfire problem if it had six or seven officers on patrol every shift. Right now, with up to nine vacancies on a force of 30 officers, that’s not possible.
Cloy, who took the McComb job last June, said many of the shootings are more of a personal dispute than related to gang activity.
“They know all about each other, they’ve been knowing each other, and in the cases in McComb most of the time, it’s going to be beyond the gang issue,” he said.
“I’m disappointed, not just in McComb, but with the amount of young people who really do not care about each other’s lives,” he added.
He mentioned a video of several young men crouching at a convenience store door during a drive-by shooting that occurred after a gathering for the man the extradited suspect is accused of killing.
“The picture that they want to draw for you is that they’re invincible, fearless, but we saw right there — one young man was running behind his friend, using him as a shield,” he said.
“When the bullets start flying, when your friend gets shot in the head, things are different,” he added.
“I had somebody very close to me in a rehab center because they had a stroke. I went to visit and noticed there are a lot of men in the rehab center with bullet injuries, to the point that nurses are in fear of people coming up there to finish the job.
“This is the part that the young kids don’t see, when they are hit in the spine or the head, and parents or family have to take care of them because they can’t walk.”
Cloy said the shootings are frustrating, but he’s not giving up. He said the positive side of the job is when he talks to kids and teenagers who seem willing to listen. He said a number of adults also have encouraged him and his officers.
“But the end result is still that it affects the public,” he said. “It’s hard for us to solve crimes because we’re not getting the assistance that we need.
“I don’t want excuses; I want the crimes solved.”
