This Sounds Like Hell

Here's a nice story from this morning's Enquirer:

In District 1, about three-quarters of last year's shooting victims were black males. Most victims were in their 20s and 30s, although their ages ranged from 8 to 54. At least three were suspected shooters in other incidents.

All but three of the District 1 shootings occurred in Over-the-Rhine and the West End.

Police arrested 12 suspects in the 94 shootings. But nine cases were dropped for lack of sufficient evidence or cooperation, and only three suspects were charged, indicted and prosecuted through the system.

Two of them went to prison.

Why so few convictions?

The cycle of violence involves people like Jason McClure.

Three times last year, the 24-year-old Over-the-Rhine man was charged with shooting people. But none of the victims or witnesses ever showed up for court. So each time, McClure went free.

"What happens is when he shoots people and nobody shows up for court, he's going to keep shooting people," Officer Sean Woods says. "It lets him run the streets. We have to just keep picking him up."

In the latest case, McClure was accused in August of shooting two men. The charges were dismissed because neither victim would cooperate with detectives, police say. Then, three weeks later, one of the victims was suspected of shooting McClure. McClure wouldn't testify, either, even though he'd been shot five times.

He could not be found for comment.

If officers didn't think of it as a game, Officer Matt Hamer says, "we'd probably just cry and go home."

Now, McClure is wanted again. This time he is accused of sticking a black-and-silver handgun in the face of an Over-the-Rhine corner store clerk in December. Police say McClure threatened the clerk not to testify before a grand jury looking into a case in which McClure is accused of robbing the same store. McClure casually grabbed a few Black & Mild cigarettes on his way out, says Woods, who filed the latest charges.

"The last time I saw him, he said, 'I'm straightening out,' " the officer says. "They all say that."

...Police say chances are minuscule that somebody might see McClure's picture, do the right thing and call. Still, they can hope.

McClure stays on another list, too.

"Every cop has a list in his head of five or six guys we think would shoot us in the back," Woods says. "He's on my list."