From Lt. Baltz:
Hello. I hope everyone had a nice October and a quiet Halloween. I know there were a lot of activities taking place over the weekend. First Fridays will be this Friday night, plan to come out and support the businesses that participate in this.
It is unfortunate but we had a homicide in Sector 413 that occurred on October 29 at 3rd and Broad Streets at four o’clock in the afternoon.
There were 10 robberies in Sector 413 last month. Two of these were to Commercial businesses.
There was 1 aggravated assault in Sector 413; the suspect was arrested.
Here is a breakdown on the crimes reported:
VIOLENT CRIME:
Homicide-
300 E. Broad Street, 4:00 pm, Javis Turner was stabbed by Desean Trent on 10/29/09. Trent was arrested. Motive-Argument
2 Commercial Robberies-
10/14/09, 212 E. Grace Street, 2:00pm, the modern Coin was robbed by two unknown b-m’s. Both had handguns.
10/18/09, 520 W. Broad Street, 5:30 pm, Rite Aid was robbed by unknown male with a handgun.
8 Robberies-
10/09/09, 1230 am, 700 W. Franklin Street, Anthony Brown, 18 and Nicholas Smith, 18 were robbed by two unknown b-m’s armed with hand guns.
10/21/09, 0245 a.m., 501 W. Broad Street, Thomas Higgins, 19 and Michael Mann, 18, were robbed outside of New York Fried Chicken by two unknown males armed with handguns.
10/21/09, 0230 a.m. 813 W. Grace Street. Jairo Montengno, 20 was robbed by 2 suspects armed with handguns. Brandon Anderson, 22 and Bryant Harris, 26 were arrested that night.
10/23/09, 0245 am, 300 N. Madison, Buster Perkins, 26 was robbed by an unknown male armed with a handgun.
10/23/09, 1205 a.m., 400 N. Madison, William Bendye, 32 and Rasheeda Johnson, 30 were robbed by 2 unknown males armed with handguns.
10/24/09, 0144 am, 600 E. Main Street, the parking attendant, Diruk Wordofa, 44 was sprayed with mace and robbed by two unknown males.
10/31/09, 5:00pm, 200 E. Broad Street, Anthony Higgins, 19 was robbed by David Evans by force. Officer Nicholas Castrinos observed the incident taking place and after a short foot pursuit was able to apprehend the suspect. EXCELLENT JOB OFFICER CASTRINOS!
1 Aggravated Assault-
320 W. Grace Street, 10/30/09, Vanessa Mitchell, 21 was assaulted by her roommate, Sarah Rodriguez, 21. Rodriguez was arrested.
PROPERTY CRIMES
There were 49 thefts from motor vehicles during the month of October. The majority happened in the Monroe Ward and City Center neighborhoods. I have requested some additional officer’s to patrol in these areas especially when we have activities taking place at the coliseum, the National theatre and Center Stage. On a positive note, Patrol officers did make 6 arrests involving individuals breaking into vehicles. This occurred in the last week of October so we anticipate a decrease in this type of crime.
Graffiti seems to be appearing everywhere throughout our Sector. I cannot think of a neighborhood that has not been “tagged”. These individuals do not think about the damage they are causing to the businesses when they paint on walls and vehicles. They are very hard to catch but maybe if we all work together we could catch one or two. Call us if you see anything suspicious taking place.
If you are aware of crime or would like to give information call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000. Please continue to report suspicious persons or activities to the police as soon as possible. The non emergency number is 646-5100.
Sector 413 Officer Thomas Neale was awarded the 4th Precinct Officer of the Month. Congratulations Officer Neale! Officer Neale apprehended a theft from a motor vehicle suspect after he observed the individual outside of a car. After a short foot pursuit the subject was apprehended and the stolen property was returned to the owner.
During the month of October, Sector 413 officers answered 1880 radio calls and conducted 155 field interviews. These numbers reflect only Sector 413; it does not include the rest of the Precinct. That is a lot of radio calls!
I want to thank the officers, detectives and community for their continued support in making Sector 413 a better place to live and work.
Sincerely,
Lt. Yvonne Baltz- Fourth Precinct – Sector 413 – (o) 646-4239
yvonnebaltz@richmondgov.com
imagine going to work and striving DAILY to confront these armed robbers and other wack jobs and take them off the streets for us. All I can say is God bless you officers of the 413 and may He keep you safe.
I agree Todd. I have a press release about recent robber arrests that I will try to get up on the site soon.
By the way, is “City Center” an official neighborhood?
There were 49 thefts from motor vehicles during the month of October. The majority happened in the Monroe Ward and City Center neighborhoods.
Neighborhood or not, Scott, people live, work here and operate businesses here. To us these crimes are a very serious matter. What’s it take to be an “official” neighborhood?
Paul- to be an official neighborhood in the 5th district, you must officially be ignored by your city councilman.
All jokes aside, securing the city center is of prime importance to bringing business and jobs and even families back into city center. Most people only consider it a business district, but it truly is an historic neighborhood of Richmond. And one that is improving.
I believe the downtown that Paul is referring to is in the 6th District, which is in Councilperson Ellen Robertson’s district. I am all for revitalizing downtown, but the crazy thing is that it is unclear who, from a democratic, civic view, represents it as a residential and even commercial neighborhood and yet it has received more public money than other part of the City, to the tune of over a billion dollars.
We already have the ‘River District’ which is a nebulous, contrived area of the City, what are the exact boundaries of ‘City Center’? Is there a community blog/neighborhood association that lays claim? The people who make the decisions for that part of the City- do they live there or are they some corporate fronts for people who don’t even live in the City?
I’ve never lived in the 6th district Scott. You know where Monroe Ward is. City Center generally refers to the business district. Overall downtown belongs to everyone and we all have a vested interest in its success. This was a crime report. Crime downtown matters to people who live in all neighborhoods. Most people at one time or another come downtown to eat, work or play. They deserve to be safe while they do so.
“They deserve to be safe while they do so.”
Of course. Yes, this is a crime report.
I will note that Sector 413 does not correspond to Council districts.
I was asking what ‘City Center’ refers to.
While downtown may or may not ‘belong to everyone’, I believe the City is over-invested in its success to the point that failure could bring down the rest of Richmond with it.
Scott,
Your ability to hijack any issue to suit your purposes remains unblemished.
I am sorry, I thought we were discussing ‘City Center’. ‘Hijacking’ suggests the issue was owned by someone in the first place.