Violence hits home

WALTERBORO -- Anrae Hamlin was riding with his cousin in February when two men jumped into the street with guns blazing. Hamlin took one bullet in the leg and another in the foot. As he bled, one of his friends was being buried across town, just days after another shooting.

Hamlin, 20, said he took to carrying a gun for protection and considered exacting some street justice of his own. He said he eventually calmed down and got rid of the gun, deciding it was best to let the law handle things. But he remains cautious when he ventures out in rural Colleton County, aware that tensions always are simmering just below the surface.

"People around here are crazy," Hamlin said, shaking his head. "People treat guns like water pistols. They don't think about it taking someone's life."

The consequences of violence hit home in Colleton County last week when a series of shootings left three people dead, including a toddler who was shot fatally in the head, and eight more wounded. The violence prompted authorities to flood the area with police and to consider imposing a curfew and a state of emergency.

The response is designed to calm tensions and keep a lid on the violence. But authorities realize solving the problem will require long-term solutions that rid the region of violent groups responsible for the tit-for-tat bloodshed, State Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd said.

Investigators are probing the shootings for ties to gang activity, which has been a growing problem in this sparsely populated region of 38,000 people.

Sheriff's investigators have identified some 20 gangs operating in Colleton County, each with about 20 members. They mimic hand signs, dress and customs of established national gangs like the Bloods and Crips, but authorities said they have found nothing to indicate any formal affiliations with those groups. That doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.

"Unfortunately, Colleton is not unlike a number of communities around the state that have problems with these groups," Lloyd said. "They are violent, and they need to be pulled off the streets."

Going after the gangs

For the most part, Colleton's gangs are loosely organized, tying their names to the communities they are from. Investigators have said it's just a way of life for many of the kids, something to do and a place to belong in rural and impoverished areas. Increasingly, that way of life is leading to bloodshed.

Lloyd wouldn't discuss his specific strategies for going after the gangs, but he said authorities have had success elsewhere with similar operations.

In August, federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested dozens of drug suppliers with gang ties after a year-long investigation in the Midlands that involved wire taps, undercover cocaine purchases and surveillance. Two years before that, the FBI-led Columbia Violent Gang Task Force rounded up members of the Gangsta Killer Bloods gang after a sprawling investigation that utilized informants, wiretaps and other measures.

Some in Colleton County remain dubious that police can get a handle on a festering gang problem that has grown despite crackdowns by the sheriff's office and others. It seems like everyone around Walterboro has a tale to tell about senseless violence happening to them or someone they know.

Barbara Shider, 46, moved from Virginia to Colleton County last year to be closer to her aging mother. She was shocked by the violence that had overtaken her hometown. In November 2008, she got a first-hand taste when two gunmen burst into her Green Pond home and threw her husband to the floor. The couple escaped to a nearby church, but the robbers got away with cash, jewelry and the couple's car. No arrests were made, she said.

Shider said she and her husband now keep guns on hand and have wired their home with cameras, motion detectors and alarms to protect them from intruders. "If a squirrel comes in my yard to play, I want to see it," she said. "You have to do what you can to keep yourself safe."

Wild in the streets

The brazenness of the gang attacks have fueled hard questions about the public's safety and the ability of law enforcement to protect citizens. Monday night's shooting, which left three dead and six wounded, occurred at a McDaniel Street home just a mile away from the police station. Two days later, two more men were wounded in a shooting just a few blocks away from Monday's attack.

The following day, the streets of Walterboro's quaint shopping district appeared all but deserted. Barber Mike Thurston said some people were staying close to home and not taking chances. "This has got a lot of people spooked," he said.

Gary Davis, who runs a shoe repair store and an Irish pub in Walterboro, said he thinks much of the problem stems from a lack of parental guidance and "politically correct" officials who won't hold parents accountable for their wayward children. The end result, he said, is thugs running wild and terrorizing neighborhoods.

"It's western days out there again," Davis said.

Walterboro Mayor Bill Young has tried to assure residents that authorities are on top of the problem and well-equipped to deal with the gangs. But he also said the community must work together and cooperate with police to achieve a long-term solution to the violence.

"The challenge for us as public officials is to create a sense of trust," he said. "There is a street mentality out there among some young people that 'We're going to handle this ourselves' and not involve the authorities. We can't have that."

Just hours after Monday's shooting, Ruby Kittrell, who lost her brother, son and granddaughter in the attack, pleaded for people to leave justice in the hands of the Lord and the law. Too much blood had been shed already, she said.

Still, a palpable sense of tension hovered around the community. On Gerideau and McDaniel streets, the site of Monday's drive-by shooting, grieving young men huddled in small groups, bitterly venting their frustrations about police and sharing stories of other shootings that had gone unpunished. Every eye locked on the street whenever a car passed by.

"A lot of people are scared," said Jayna Adams, 17. "You don't know what to expect, and I don't think it's going to stop here."

Hamlin, who was shot in February, said people don't expect any help from police, who seem more concerned about rousting folks for loitering or drinking beer on the sidewalk. Police ask for trust, but they assume every young man is a gang member, he said.

On this afternoon, Hamlin was dressed from head to toe in red and black, the colors of the Bloods street gang. He acknowledged that some people might get the wrong idea, but insisted he just liked the color scheme. That's why police need to get to know people and not make assumptions, he said. "I like black, but I ain't in no gang."

A pattern of violence

A string of shootings in 2006 around Walterboro first drew widespread attention to the gangs. More violence followed, but it rarely resulted in serious injuries until Colleton County Deputy Dennis Compton was shot to death in August 2008 while responding to a burglary alarm. One of the two men charged in the killing was affiliated with a local gang. Both men also were implicated in the theft of gang files from a sheriff's office substation.

This year ushered in more bloodshed, with six homicides before the end of June. Among the victims was Adella "Nell" Pinckney, a mother of four who was killed by a shotgun blast that ripped through her bedroom window and headboard while she slept with her 11-year-old son by her side.

People seem unsure of the origins of the violence. Or if they know, they're not saying.

Hamlin said there's little to do in Colleton County, leaving people with too much time to sit around drinking and picking at the scabs of old slights and perceived wrongs.

He said he's still unsure why gunmen shot at him and his cousin, who was grazed by a bullet. Maybe they didn't like the way he looked. Maybe it was some old neighborhood beef that had nothing to do with him. That's the way it goes around here, he said.

On the ground near Hamlin sat a memorial to Shaniyah Burden, the 20-month-old who died in Monday's shooting. Below chairs stuffed with teddy bears, six white candles protruded from the ground, surrounding a simple white sign. Peace, it read.

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.