By Ray King

A mid-afternoon homicide that resulted in the death of a 69-year-old man was only the beginning Thursday as Pine Bluff Police responded to two more incidents which claimed the lives of at least two more people.

The first homicide was reported at 3101 Lilac St., where police found the body of Horace Harrington of Pine Bluff who had been shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene. This was the 19th homicide of the year and police sources tell Deltaplex News that they have a suspect in that incident but so far, no arrest has been made.

At around 4:40 p.m., Officers were sent to a reported shooting in the area of 17th Avenue and Elm Street and when they arrived found a 17-year-old male lying in front of the residence. He had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene. A second male was taken to Jefferson Regional Hospital for what police called “non-life- threatening wounds.”

The names of the victims were not released, and police said no suspect information or motive for the shooting had been determined.

Around the same time, there was a reported shooting at 25 Needles Drive in the Dollarway area that resulted in the death of one man. Deltaplex News has been told the incident was the result of a drive-by.

The victim in this shooting has been identified at 20-year-old Kavon Mitchell.

With the two latest incidents, there have now been 21 homicides in the city.

A message was left for Mayor Shirley Washington Thursday night but was not immediately returned. A message was also left for Police Chief Kelvin Sergeant and a reporter was told by two different sources that Sergeant is on vacation. He did not attend a meeting of the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Association (MECA) Thursday morning and sent Deputy Chief Bill Elliott instead.

Deltaplex News also reached out to members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, whose area of responsibility includes the police department to get their reaction to the multiple homicides.

“We must get a handle on this immediately or our problems have just begun,” Council member Win Trafford, who is chairman of the committee said. “Zero tolerance. It’s expensive and I know it requires resources, but desperate times need desperate measures.”

Former Police Chief and current council member Ivan Whitfield said that the problems like the multiple shootings didn’t develop overnight, citing no jobs and what he called “little gangs popping up, young boys out of control.”

He said that what he called “other stake-holders” are going to have to come to the table and “if we don’t get these children under control it’s going to get worse.”

“If I was still Chief, and I think I was a pretty good one, I couldn’t have stopped these homicides,” Whitfield said, going on to say that it’s got to be a collective effort if incidents like this can be reduced.

The third member of the committee, Council Member Joni Alexander agreed that the multiple homicides in a single day was a tragedy and a wake-up call but if it’s determined that the incidents were not related, “how many more wake-up calls do we need? It needs to stop.”

Alexander said when a homicide occurs, the public “gets in an uproar but then gets back to normal, until the next time. If we keep doing the same things, we are going to get the same results.”

“Every time this happens, I feel a little less ownership in the community,” Alexander said. “This can happen to anyone.”