IN-DEPTH |
First in an occasional series on teen gun violence in Springfield.
A 26-year-old man dies after a drive-by shooting in Springfield. The alleged shooter is 19 and now in jail, awaiting his preliminary hearing this month.
Across town, six youths ages 15, 16 and 17 are currently in detention at the Greene County Juvenile Justice Center, all suspects in gun-related murders or robberies. Hearings will determine whether they should be charged as adults and stand trial, or remain subject to juvenile court jurisdiction.
A young teen in a road rage incident shoots at a car with a gun that his passenger — his mother — hands him to take care of the problem.
“All this stuff comes, and we think the gun is the problem?” says community activist Pastor Roger Franklin. “It started way before he ever got a gun.”
Unpack that, he says, and Springfield may be able to get kids to stop using guns to get what they want, what they need. To belong. To settle scores. To commit suicide.
Some say 2024 could be the year. Gun use, especially among children as young as 12, is no longer considered “law enforcement’s problem.”
It’s on everyone’s radar.
The conversation about youths and gun violence is especially fresh on everyone’s minds following the Feb. 14 melee at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration outside Union Station. Two juveniles are among those arrested and several guns were recovered after the mass shooting. A person was killed and 21 others were wounded.
Across Springfield, “credible messengers” are going to the streets, earning the trust of at-risk teens — on their turf and on their terms.
Why care?
Gun violence by teens in Springfield is on everyone’s radar. Police are targeting criminals with guns as part of a focus on reducing gun violence. City Council has asked for legislative changes to make it illegal for minors to possess a handgun. Teen suicide and mental health issues are on the rise. A new collaborative involving more than 30 community leaders has begun work, while “credible messengers” are going to the streets, earning the trust of at-risk teens — on their turf and on their terms.
Two major construction projects are underway: A teen crisis center called the Youth Resiliency Campus, and the Risdal Family Teen Center for Great Futures — an after-school project of Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield that promises after-school outlets exclusively for ages 13 and up, with audiovisual tools, mentoring and work preparedness opportunities.
Teens and adults are airing grievances and fears at open meetings. One woman at a no-holds-barred event told a crowd: “I’m from the streets, and you all need to start snitching! And if you don’t want to snitch, come tell me and I’ll snitch for you.”
Tackling a gun loophole that ties the hands of street patrol cops, the Springfield City Council is urging Missouri lawmakers to make it illegal for minors to possess handguns, consistent with federal law.
Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative formed
In Springfield, the Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative with more than 30 civic leaders and volunteers gets down to business on March 6.
“There is a sense of urgency because of the constant state of fatalities happening with our youth and guns, and Blacks and Black men, and suicides. Not that they’re all connected, but there are some root causes that can lead to some of that,” says Francine Pratt.
Pratt, a community advocate and director of Prosper Springfield, co-chairs the collaborative with Burrell Behavioral Health’s Clay Goddard. Formed in 2023 as an outreach of Community Partnership of the Ozarks, members of the collaborative come from all corners including the faith, mental health, social services, schools, business and law enforcement communities. Former youth violence offenders are at the table.
Many of the partners have been working on related issues in their professions and community projects for years. As a body, they’ll reconvene in March to consider possible next steps, including:
- How to mentor youths and young adults in “violence reduction zones.”
- How to teach anger management to youth and adults.
- How to involve teens as decision makers in preventing youth violence.
Pratt explains one approach: “All of the best practices show (results) when you take those who were in the ‘hood, in the streets, and doing the wrong stuff, and now you put them where they recognize that you make them stewards, and you teach them how. You’re not giving them direct resources, but you’re giving them respect. You’re even giving them a stipend for whatever they’re able to do.”
Teen suicide and mental health are part of the focus. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Missouri’s youths ages 18-24, and the third leading cause of death among youth age 10-17, according to state statistics. In Greene County, the Medical Examiner’s Office reports that three teens ages 15-18 committed suicide in 2022, two as a result of gunshot, one by intentional vehicle crash after expressing their plan.
A 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey also found that Black students had the highest prevalence estimates for attempted suicide. Guns are used in more than 50 percent of suicides, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Looking at this purely through a public health lens, the data is clear that our children are at a higher risk of suicide than their peers in Missouri and the nation as a whole,” says Goddard, Pratt’s co-chair. Goddard is a career public health professional and now with Burrell Behavioral Health as its southwest region president.
It’s one of the many reasons Burrell staff members say they worked with Springfield and state leaders to get support and funding for the planned Youth Resiliency Campus. It will provide a 24-hour teen crisis center, outpatient and inpatient services and residential treatment for highest-need teens.
Telling their story
Youths are helping drive discussions. They bare their demons and fears at events like “Ripping the Roof Off of Youth Violence” held Feb. 10 on the Drury University campus. Pastor Roger Franklin from Heart Church and his youth Action Center ministry led the mashup of rap music, a little gospel and some straight talk. Majors Tad Peters and Stacey Parton attended from the Springfield Police Department. So did Darline Mabins from Community Partnership of the Ozarks with dozens of teens and young adults.
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At the event, teens shared their stories. One student had been bullied every day by classmates until he transferred to another school.
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Teen Neveah Caton told the group, “There are a lot more mental health issues that people don’t know about. People may be going through something and they feel like they want to disappear, and be gone.”
Another young adult grew up with an alcoholic mother who belittled him, saying he hadn’t earned the right to express feelings in the house. Her angry words: “‘Don’t come home from school mad. None of that — because you ain’t paying no bills.’”
In time, he said, “What are you feeling — you’re feeling nothing. So all my life as a young ‘un before I became a parent — I ain’t got no feelings… Feelings ain’t real… Anybody from the hood, anybody from the ghetto, they’d probably tell you the same thing.”
Pratt has attended similar teen-to-adult summits.
“I’m not making excuses for anything, but what came out to me is ‘Do you see me?’” Pratt said.
‘Bags of trauma’
The Greene County Juvenile Justice Center has room to house 16 youths. As of Feb. 21, the center had 16 youths in custody, “and we’re pretty much running full all the time,” says Chief Juvenile Officer Bill Prince.
Six of the teens are in detention awaiting hearings to determine whether they should stand trial as adults, or remain under juvenile jurisdiction. Three of the 17-year-olds are suspects in recent murders. Three more ages 15, 16 and 17 are suspected of 1st degree assault and armed robbery. Guns were involved in all the cases, Prince says.
Missouri law in 2021 placed 17-year-olds, once classified as adults, under juvenile court jurisdiction. The law made some sense — these are immature minds, Prince says. But now he deals with teens who are older, with more serious rap sheets.
“They may come in the door because they stole something or beat somebody up. But you scratch the surface a little bit and you find out there may be abuse and neglect going on,” Prince says “… they’re bringing in bags of trauma they’ve suffered. And in many cases it’s multi-generational trauma.”
A team of officers, therapists, children’s or youth services workers and family, when possible, meet weekly to focus on each youth in detention. “Our goal here is to prevent these kids from ending up west of town, in the Greene County Jail,” he says.
“One of things about the juvenile system is this belief that no one is irredeemable. But when you kill somebody…how do you come back from that? It’s tough.
“And again, most of these offenses involve weapons. Guns.”
Pride, power and guns
Pastor Sheldon Williams of East Grand Church of Christ reaches teens through the gospel, a youth ministry outreach and original Christian hip hop and rap he records under the name SERV.
When a teen feels unheard, pushed aside at home, the message is, “You don’t want me here.” Hurt and resentment fill the dark side of pride, Williams says.
“Pride is rewarded at a young age, and that’s the only thing we feel like we have, so we don’t want to lose our pride,” he says.
As a child himself, who was churched and loved, “It’s pride and power. I’m going to school, I’m getting punched in the back of the head just because these kids are the cool kids, the gang members. Well, I’m not going to let you slap me. I’ll slap you back. So then I get detention, I get kicked out of school. Even if I lost a fight, I was OK because at least I fought. I stood up for myself. That was everything. That’s what all the rap music tells you to do. That’s what all the movies tell you. Rocky — did Rocky ever walk away from a fight? ‘No, I’m not going to take that off of you.’
“Have these kids be exposed to love,” Williams says. “That’s what happened to me” through coming back to his spiritual faith. “When I was exposed to love, that changed me. And it made me change the way I treated people.
“I had to learn what a lot of people didn’t learn, which was how to handle disrespect,” he adds. “It’s — if somebody pushes you, to not push them back. And you’re not a weak person if you do that. You’re actually a strong person… It’s OK to walk away…”
At Heart Church, Pastor Franklin agrees.
“What’s so sad is that pride is all they got. I have to think something about myself. If I let go of that, I feel useless. And if you get a man, a younger man, thinking he’s useless, he’s dangerous.
“You get a young man that hates himself, that’s where school shootings come from,” Franklin says. “That’s where the mall shootings come from. That’s where shootings in the clubs come from. When you don’t like yourself, a gun gives you power.”
The case for ‘credible messengers’
Franklin has led funerals for many of the teens killed last year in Springfield.
“I decided we’ve got to do something different,” he says. “We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to do something to solve that.”
He didn’t mince words with those who attended the funeral for 26-year-old Chaviz Nguyen, who died in a November 2023 drive-by shooting. The alleged shooter, 19-year-old Elysha Bedell, is in jail awaiting preliminary hearing, said Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson.
“What I always do is definitely pray a lot and try to be sensitive to them, but I come down kind of hard. I don’t do like most of these traditional pastors and try to, you know, ‘He’s in a better place…’” Franklin says.
“No, I come kind of hard. I bring up, ‘We need men to get more involved in our schools, in our communities. And we need you families that have been affected by this to take advantage of this and say ‘We’re going to fight back. We’re going to get back out there.’
“The young people that are there, I tell them, ‘What are you doing to prevent you from being in this casket? You need a purpose in life. Where are you going? What’s your plan? Where are you headed next?’”
That’s a message Prince, Greene County’s juvenile officer, thinks will keep kids out of jail.
“Roger Franklin and people like him are who I would consider ‘credible messengers,’ to these kids,” people with street cred who can connect with teens earlier in their lives. “I’m just an old guy, nobody’s going to listen to me.”
The juvenile office brings in teen members of the SAAB Brotherhood — “That’s another group of credible messengers,” Prince says. The local chapter of SAAB, formerly known as the Student African American Brotherhood, focuses on helping young Black and Latino men excel academically, socially, culturally, spiritually and in the community.
“They’re all about taking these young men and teaching them ‘You’re worthy of respect, you need to act respectful and you will get respect in return,’ It’s been a good resource for us,” Prince says. “A kid who might be sitting in detention, or attending our Youth Academy (day treatment program), they’ll say, ‘Well, here’s a young man who’s got his life together, he’s going to graduate from college next year.’ Again, those credible messengers who these kids can look at and say ‘I want to be like that.’”
‘A rapper can go where a preacher can’t’
Some of Springfield’s rap artists help fill the messenger gap — “A rapper can go where a preacher can’t,” says SERV, Pastor Williams.
At this stage in their lives, he says, kids and teens take cues from the music they listen to, and it’s not all good. Commercial rap’s drumbeat is full of sex, drugs, gangs, gun violence and self-harm. “Sometimes it’s even jumping off a bridge or overmedicating. Suicide becomes a theme.”
The music inspires youths to emulate celebrity rappers’ behavior, posting Instagram videos of themselves brandishing guns and threatening a crosstown foe. If they’re struggling with identity and that negative pride, it inspires gang attachment. The logical conclusion, says Springfield Police Capt. Fred Beck, “They run into one another on the street and end up shooting each other because of something that was said on a rap video…”
The guns are props, he says, “and they’re using guns as props to back up their claims.”
Unlike those individuals, Pastor Williams points to local rap artists and lyricists Young Zealous in Williams’ youth ministry; JayceJanae who raps and produces their studio recordings; and Cornelius Johnson. Apart from holding their day jobs, they try to be mentors and positive role models for kids that others don’t reach — the ones who won’t show up at the Boys & Girls Clubs or go out for high school sports.
Mike Sikes, aka Young Zealous, hopes to have a youth rap camp for teens this summer.
Behind the bass-heavy tracks mixed in a Springfield studio, they rap about self-worth, self-respect, finding purpose, getting clean. Pastor Williams was finishing a track in early February about overcoming addiction: “One More 24 (hours).” Young Zealous wrote a rap “Do Sumthin” that he performs with Williams. Young Zealous, performed with JayceJanae and Cornelius Johnson on “Ripping The Roof Off,” at the Feb. 10 event.
The refrain: “Don’t burn it down — tear the roof off!” Young Zealous says, “Which now I think about how deep that is. That means we don’t have to burn stuff down and riot, but keep the building. Keep the infrastructure (but) tear the roof off and get the corruption out and put a new roof on top and a new way of thinking.”
Why can’t the police fix this?
Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams serves on the Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative with the others and says he welcomes the focus on gun violence prevention.
“For too long it’s been looked at as ‘How come the police can’t fix this?’ I’ve been saying it’s a community-wide issue. We need involvement from everybody.”
His 2024 priority is to reduce gun violence in the community: “Target criminals with guns, take guns off the criminals and criminals off the street,” he says.
The focus has yielded good results in at least one area, Chief Williams says. Data show police seized 88 illegal guns in 2020; they seized 266 guns in 2023.
Police officers continue to focus on getting the public to help prevent the use of guns inappropriately, irresponsibly. Unfortunately, Williams says, people think guns are cool, they’re easy to obtain and so there’s a proliferation of people packing guns who normally wouldn’t do anything bad, shooting someone or going to jail.
“You get in an argument with someone… somebody makes you mad in traffic and somebody resorts to using a gun to try to resolve or settle that dispute. … I think of one specifically where a 15- or 16-year-old got in a road rage deal and shot somebody.” His passenger — Mom — was in the car “‘to go take care of that kind of thing.’”
Guns used in crimes have always been a problem, Williams says, but the amount of activity related to gunfire and people shot has doubled.
Change in conceal carry law followed by increased calls for ‘shots fired’
“I can point to one thing: 2016 — the law changed,” Williams says. Passage of Missouri Senate Bill 656, approved over the veto of Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon, became effective in 2017.
It means an individual no longer needs a permit to conceal carry or open carry a firearm, with few exceptions. There are fewer restrictions and training requirements. Anything related to assault weapons is excluded.
“The stats are very dramatic,” Williams says. “Shots fired” calls for service jumped from 183 in 2016 to 356 in 2022. The number of people being shot went from 55 in 2019 (the first year they were tracked) to 73 in 2022. “We literally doubled the number of shots fired, and people being shot since the law was changed.”
The picture improved in 2023, when the number of “shots fired” calls for service fell to 319, and 58 people were injured, police data show.
With his officers’ focus on gun violence, Williams says, “I’d like to think we’ve had an impact on that a little bit.”
He will present those and other first quarter 2024 crime stats to Springfield City Council on Feb. 26.
Still troubling: Of 133 shooting investigations in 2023, 21 of the suspects were age 18 and under; 66 of them were age 24 and under. Police have begun compiling age demographics for previous years.
Guns easily find their way into the hands of teenagers.
“Those of us who’ve been in law enforcement a long time, it was unusual to start pulling guns off kids like this,” says police Capt. Fred Beck. “And now it’s the norm, acceptable, or expected that some of these kids are carrying guns and they’re settling their disturbances or disputes with guns that would have normally not been there.”
One bright spot in the data: The number of vehicle break-ins resulting in theft of handguns has decreased steadily from a high of 228 thefts in 2020 to 161 thefts in 2023.
In January 2024, there were 10 thefts of handguns from vehicles, hinting at another annual decrease this year. The monthly average of thefts from vehicles peaked at 19 in 2020. “We haven’t had a month with 10 (such thefts) in six or seven years,” Williams says.
He credits the public’s response to a Community Partnership of the Ozarks campaign that encouraged gun owners to handle their weapons responsibly: Don’t leave them in your vehicle or purse, lock and store them at home and out of the hands of children and teens. CPO offers free cable locks while available for handguns as part of a home safety lockbox kit.
“…It (previously) was unusual to start pulling guns off kids … now it’s the norm, acceptable, or expected that some of these kids are carrying guns and they’re settling their disturbances or disputes with guns.”
Springfield police capt. fred beck
CPO was responding in part to a 2020 CDC study indicating that firearms became the leading cause of death for U.S. children ages 1-19, surpassing car accidents and drug overdose.
While the cause of injuries are not available, Mercy Hospital Springfield had three pediatric patients admitted to the emergency room with gunshot wounds in 2019; nine in 2020, six in 2021, eight in 2022 and seven in 2023.
Since 2020, CoxHealth emergency departments in Springfield treated an average of five pediatric patients per year for injuries related to gunshot wounds. A spokesman said a majority of these patients were discharged after treatment and not admitted to the hospital.
Of gangs and ‘alphabet thugs’
Gangs play a role in youth gun violence, largely stemming from “interpersonal conflict” among rival members, says Springfield Police Department Capt. Fred Beck.
Law enforcement and the community banished members of infamous outside gangs 25 years ago before they established a foothold in Springfield. Chief Williams says his department has worked hard to keep it that way.
Police have identified some 50 “loosely affiliated, homegrown individuals” that Williams calls “alphabet thugs,” because they adopt monikers like FTO and ODB.
In a broad, ongoing sweep, his department has partnered with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and multiple federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on juveniles and adults suspected of, or involved in, shooting deaths and injuries, possession of drugs and illegal weapons, and multiple gang-related activities in Springfield. Several men charged or sentenced in the years-long sweep identified with two violent street gangs known as FTO – F- – – The Oppositions, or Opps; and ODB, Only Da Brothers — that are active in Springfield.
“Our goal is to keep the pressure on and disrupt what is a loose organization from becoming a true organization,” Williams says. “That’s why it’s so important for the community to be involved in this, and parents and family members, and churches, to have an impact on those 15- to 20-year-olds so that we don’t get to the point we were 25 years ago.”
After one set of federal gun and drug charges filed in 2022 against two 19-year-olds identifying as FTO members, Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott issued a statement: “… News of weekly shootings and murders have become commonplace and our citizens no longer feel safe. With just a little bit of focused effort, we have already seen a reduction in gang violence.”
An appeal to lawmakers
The Springfield City Council has joined law enforcement groups in voicing concerns about gun violence. In its 2024 list of priorities sent to Missouri legislators, the city listed public safety No. 1, and endorsed an effort making it illegal for minors to possess handguns, consistent with federal law. Senate and House bills have been introduced this year calling for similar restrictions on handgun possession by minors.
Currently in Missouri, and barring the presence of illegal/dangerous activity, minors can possess handguns — a law that bedevils police on street patrol, Chief Williams says. An officer who sees a handgun while stopping a vehicle of minors any time of day or night in most cases cannot take the gun.
“We have to give it back to them, which boggles my mind,” he says.
“We have to give it (the gun) back to them, which boggles my mind.”
springfield police chief paul williams explaining that police cannot seize a handgun from a minor unless the minor is engaged in illegal or dangerous activity
Such a change in the law wouldn’t solve the gun violence problem, says Chief Juvenile Officer Bill Prince, but it would allow officers to take a youth into custody and present them for detention, “and maybe we could intervene with whatever’s going on in their lives.…
“When a 15-year-old or 16-year-old kills somebody, they’ve obviously forever altered the life of that victim, and they’ve forever changed the trajectory of their life. If we can interrupt that behavior so that we can have a victim that’s still alive and a kid that’s not going to spend large parts of their life in jail, we want to do that.”
Few give the proposal any chance this year.
“We’re a second amendment state, and anything that would limit an individual’s right to possess a weapon is obviously looked at with pretty much strict scrutiny.” Prince says.
The Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative will avoid gun policy in general, says co-chair Francine Pratt. And cities and counties are limited in what they can do, says Mayor Ken McClure. “So you have to go to creative efforts, and that’s talking about community involvement, safe storage of guns… what Francine Pratt and Clay Goddard and the pastor are getting into.”
What happens next?
Pratt, Goddard and a host of others with the Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative believe they have the right players at the table with the right skills and will.
Pratt adds, “All of the best practices show (results) when you take those who were in the ‘hood, in the streets, and doing the wrong stuff, and now you put them where they recognize that you make them stewards, and you teach them how. You’re not giving them direct resources but you’re giving them respect. You’re even giving them a stipend for whatever they’re able to do.”
In the early months of the project, she interviewed two young Black men including a 19-year-old who told her, “A lot of us only know violence, and that’s all you have seen for years and years.” He added, “Kids aren’t scared of dying or going to jail.”
What you can do
- View videos on firearm safety and suicide prevention prepared with the help of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
- If you own a firearm, be sure it is secure. Obtain a free Home Safety Kit from the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, which includes a firearm cable lock.
- Get involved in the Gun Safety and Violence Collaborative. For more information, contact co-chair Francine Pratt at fpratt@cpozarks.org.
- Support Pastor Roger Franklin from Heart Church and his youth Action Center ministry.
- Support efforts by Burrell Health, with its teen crisis center, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield, with its new teen center.
Pratt says “That loss of hope is the key thing, because if you lose hope, you have no fear of anything.”
Pastor Roger Franklin will carry stories of his own to the March 6 meeting.
“It’s going to take a lot of strong leadership to get the city, churches, to help people get healed from traumas of feeling like they were never wanted.
“We make the problem loud, but we make the solution louder.”
