BY AMANDA JOERNDT, April 28, 2021
Columbus police cars sit in front of CPD headquarters on Marconi Blvd. (Photo by Amanda Joerndt)
Lives Taken Too Soon
Anthony Michael St. Clair spent the last hours of his life having a candid conversation with his mother, Malissa Thomas-St. Clair, while playing football with his family. A group hug formed at the front door of their house, not knowing he would be saying his final goodbyes.
“My son at 22 was doing what 22-year-olds do. … Living outside of the home, we didn’t see him that much,” Thomas-St. Claire said. “A month before his passing, I craved wanting to see him. I believe that was nature's way of saying what was about to happen.”
Thomas-St. Claire described her son as a soft-hearted teddy bear who excelled in sports, but also suffered with some depression that would cost him his life.
“[Anthony] dealt with some issues of the transition from childhood to adulthood. He created some alliances that caused a life that led to making some decisions that unfortunately, we don’t have him with us today,” she said. “My son was selling drugs, and he went to go collect his debt, and when he went to go collect it, the person didn’t want to pay him, and stabbed him in his heart.”
Forty minutes after his stabbing, he died at Ohio State University (OSU) hospital with no chance to say goodbye to his family and friends.
“You must gear up and continue living for this fight of the legal battle, but also, I had a 10-year-old, and he was still a child that did not understand, so you had to snap out of that to take care of your home and child,” Thomas-St. Claire said.
Eight years later, she uses her son’s testimony to reach smaller masses of people, specifically young teens, in hopes to see a decrease in violence in Columbus neighborhoods.
“It does start in a home, but when you have a home where you got five and six children, and they all need these necessities to be in this new normal, then you have single mothers who potentially have children that don’t respect them,” Thomas-St. Claire said.
Jacqueline Casimire has been grieving from her son’s recent death in September 2020. Casimire’s son, Ray Casimire, was shot in his home for his licensed gun collection used to protect his family.
“My son was an avid gun collector and believed in his right to conceal to carry a weapon. He had his Conceal to Carry a Weapon (CCW) license and was killed for the guns,” Casimire said.
Ray was an active community member and worked with youth at the Columbus city pool as a swim instructor and a lifeguard, according to Casimire.
“He was a great dad, but since his death, the response I’ve been getting from strangers is amazing,” she said. “I went to brunch a few weeks ago, and the waiter came and said ‘Jacky, my manager has your bill. She knows your son.’”
Her son's homicide case is still an open investigation, and the Casimire family is working hard to make sure his offenders are held accountable.
“We’re not accepting the plea, and there are other people involved too that need to be held accountable,” Jacqeline said. “We had our first official meeting of the prosecutor and he’s been working, so I can’t complain about that.”
Casimire said the Columbus Police Division (CPD) need to do more in the inner-city neighborhoods to make families feel safe raising children in the city.
“There are no officers walking around the streets introducing them to families,” she said. “The only time community residents interact with the police is when you must call them for a reason, or you’re being stopped. The initial interaction with the police could be better.”
CPD Public Information Officer (PIO), Sgt. James Fuqua, said CPD recovered over 250 illegal guns off the streets from youth 14 to 23 years old from October 2020 to February 2021.
“We can talk about gun safety in terms of laws, reforms and we can add all these legislations that prevents people from purchasing guns,” he said. “However, research is clearly showing us that majority of the people committing these violent crimes are people who aren’t able to legally possess a gun.”
Sgt. Fuqua says the spike in violence was a result of the pandemic, protest and political unrest that happened in 2020 and has affected larger cities around the country.
“Many other major cities across the country, wherever the political race was most divisive in terms of the Republican or Democratic Parties, every single major city within those states had a huge spike in violence, specifically homicides,” he said.
Timothy Becker, Deputy Chief of the CPD Criminal Investigation Subdivision, works closely with homicide cases and said the city expected about 100 homicide cases in 2020 but ended with almost 180 cases.
“Harvard and Utah have done studies that show when there is less political support for law enforcement to be able to go out and do their job without fear of termination, then officers generally back off the level of enforcement, and when that’s backed off, the level of violence increases,” he said.
Chief Becker says the age for violent crimes has been trending younger by the year, reaching as young as two years old.
“They’re engaging in risky behavior and sometimes result in their own or other people’s death. Instead, they should be blossoming and developing into young men and women, but they’re not getting the opportunity to experience life,” he said.
Standing Up for Anti-Violence Measures: “It’s More Than a Statistic”
The city of Columbus, OH is experiencing an unprecedented number of gun-related homicides with 60 homicide reports as of April 21, 2021, compared to about 30 homicides this time last year, a CPD Intra-Divisional report states.
According to a Columbus Public Health (CPH) Franklin County Violence Data Briefing Report,
Ohio has seen a 30% increase in homicides in the last five years.
The CPH report also states homicide deaths are among the top 20 causes of death in Ohio and have increase by 55% in the last four years.
The CPD Intra-Divisional report claims over 96% of homicide deaths were caused by a firearm in 2021, and the state of Ohio currently has a grade “D” for gun safety laws, according to a Gifford Gun Law report.
Columbus Mayor Ginther said 2017 was also a banner year for the city with 143 reported
homicide cases.
“In 2018 and 2019 based on putting in place that comprehensive neighborhood safety strategy, we saw a great reduction in violence and homicide,” Mayor Ginther said in a March 2020 press conference. “We can do this, but each one of us have a role to play. The Division of Police cannot solve this problem, they are just part of our solution.”
88% of homicide suspects are African American reaching youth as young as 13 years-old whereas 7% of homicide suspects are White, according to a CPD Intra-Divisional report.
Councilmember President Shannon Hardin also addressed his concerns during the March 2020 press conference stating over 50% of youth end up in the hospital or worse because of
gun violence.
“It’s critical to put this crisis into context in this tremendously difficult year. COVID-19 has killed
almost 500 people in our city... Gun violence has killed more than 130, and both disproportionately harm black families,” Hardin said.
Community organizations such as Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children (MOMCC) work directly with grieving mothers to help them deal with the loss of a child from violence in the city. Thomas-St. Clair created the MOMCC Facebook group in October 2020 when she began to see children as young as two years old lose their life from gun violence.
“That was like enough of me scrolling on Facebook and reposting that enough was enough. It was enough of this proactive anger, and it was time to do something,” she said. “Whenever I started to hear about younger kids and kids in my son’s age range, I can only think about what my feelings were when I first found out, and I have undying empathy for these mothers.”
MOMCC also work in the streets and hold peaceful demonstrations of unity, peace and love, hoping to attract former and potential offenders with their anti-violence actions.
“We line the streets with signs. … And we’re out on the streets holding the signs because an offender is in a car riding the streets every day,” Thomas-St. Claire said. “A potential offender, a group of offenders or a former offender, those are the people we need to get our mission statement out too.”
MOMCC unify with law enforcement and create a positive alliance with the one’s working in the center of the violence.
“I would love to see some of the programming between law enforcement and the community where they don’t have to be disciplinary all the time, and that’s where we come in,” Thomas-St. Claire said. “Having law enforcement at our events where they don’t have to be disciplinary, that’s the bridge right there.”
Casimire said MOMCC has helped her get through some of the toughest times in her life.
“We can call somebody, and I’m always available to them,” she said. “We go out and gather, we’re a support system for the mothers. Just bringing awareness to it, and everything we do is about support of one another which is unfortunately growing daily.”
Chief Becker believes the growing violence in the city can be stopped with community efforts from law enforcement and community organizations looking to make a difference.
“Some people say the violence is going to continue and it’s unstoppable, I don’t believe that,” he said. “I do think it can trend back downwards, but it will take collaboration. We can’t point fingers at each other. … We must work together and find a way out of this.”
On the contrary, Sgt. Fuqua said he would be “disingenuous if he was to say the violence will go down.”
“We weren’t even in the forties in terms of homicides until June last year so that’s extremely concerning,” he said. “I don’t necessarily see the numbers going downwards, but I know at CPD we are going to come up with innovative ways to try not to have this huge spike and do our part.”
According to Sgt. Fuqua, being a long-time Columbus resident helps him connect with community members and potential violent youth on a deeper level.
“I think what helps is being a Columbus resident and knowing the community needs and unique challenges we face, good and bad,” he said. “It gives me the ability to be very transparent and get that information out there.”
Thomas-St. Claire said historically, the judicial system has seen systematic injustices happen time and time again and believe law enforcement and the judicial system are not on the same page to see any positive change.
“Until we are all on the same page on how to curb this violence, the violence will continue,” she said.
Thomas-St.Claire says she is hoping to see future police and judicial reform happening in the city to bring more peace and unity within city neighborhoods.
“There definitely must be reform, and I would be naïve to tell you otherwise. I’m sure you know Casey Goodson, well he was my student, and we were close even in his adult life,” she said. “When I look at his case, that’s an example of where we need some reform.”
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