Police: Juvenile Crime on The Rise In Miami
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) --Violent crime in the City of Miami has been dropping over the past ten years, but juvenile crime has been rising, according to police and young people are becoming the targets more than before.
As the calls of children and teens shot started pouring into the Miami Police Department Tuesday evening, Community Relations Director Major Delrish Moss was on the phone helping to coordinate the response.
"They came in so rapidly and in such close proximity. I started to think maybe there was confusion about what was actually happening," Moss told CBS4's Natalia Zea.
Click here to watch Natalia Zea's story.
At 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a 16-year old boy and 20-year old man were shot in the legs in Liberty City, in Miami-Dade County. Less than half an hour later two, 16-year old Richard Hallman and another 16-year old boy were shot in Miami. Hallman died.
Twenty-five minutes after little Marlon was shot, Miami police responded to an apartment complex around the corner to reports that a 15-year old girl was grazed by a bullet. Police now said it appears she was actually cut by glass but they have not confirmed whether that was the result of a shooting.
Marlon's death hurt Major Moss most of all.
"He was one of our PAL kids that played basketball for our police athletic league...A kid's future was snuffed out. No longer did he have the opportunity to grow up and be all the things he could have been," said Moss.
Moss believes the rash of attacks on young people seems to indicate a disturbing trend.
"When I started police work, you didn't hear of kids getting shot," said Moss.
Moss grew up in Overtown a mile away from where Marlon was killed, and though violence was common- child victims were not.
"I never once had to think I may be killed, I may be shot, I may be stabbed. Those things never entered my mind. As a result of that I got the chance to be a kid," said Moss.
He believes the no-snitch mentality and fear are making crimes against kids possible.
"We should draw the line at our children being on the front line of combat," said Moss.
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho also weighed in on the violence, tweeting, "Innocence of our community is being stolen one murderous bullet at a time. Four children shot within two hours during spring break in Miami."
Even other juveniles like Hall's friend Jawann Williams believe children should never be targets.
"Leave the kids out of it. If you're going to do something get your man, don't hit innocent kids," said Hall.
The rate of juveniles committing violent crimes has also gone up. Major Moss believes that's connected to more kids becoming victims of crime, a vicious cycle. He said we should all step up and report what we see, before crimes turn violent.
Moss pointed out that violent crimes aren't common in neighborhoods that refuse to tolerate them.
