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Adam
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http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-45/1184473706172960.xml&coll=5&thispage=1
FLINT - It should have been nothing more than a car ride on a sunny afternoon.
But for 5-year-old NiYauna Jones, the simple act of riding along during a test drive made her a casualty in a yearlong cycle of retaliation slayings and retribution.
NiYauna's death in a bullet-riddled used car on Carpenter Road last summer was just one piece of a violent jigsaw puzzle that has left some residents on Flint's north side afraid to leave their homes after dark.
Court records, police interviews and investigative reports in the aftermath of NiYauna's slaying offer a glimpse at a perverted code of street justice at work in Flint - a code that killed one little girl, nearly burned another to death and took the lives of four young men.
There are clear links between NiYauna's death and the deaths and firebombing that followed, said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.
"It's not a coincidence," said Leyton.
A street code that promises retribution for those who cooperate with police has contributed to the slow pace of the investigation in the slayings that preceded and followed NiYauna's death.
Despite being shot at that day with NiYauna, the intended target in her shooting only reluctantly talked with police.
"I'm only helping you with this snitchin' (stuff) that I'm doin' right now for them kids," Edward C. Williams told detectives. "I don't tell on nobody. I'm not no snitch."
The violence that took NiYauna's life has devastated families and created a culture of fear on the north side where people are scared to speak out publicly and perhaps become the next victim.
"It's gone too far," said Mary Hall, a north-side Flint resident.
"It has to stop."
Test drive
Felton J. Sealey III and Anthony J. Reed figured they had good reason to go gunning for Williams last July.
Just two days earlier, on the Fourth of July, Sealey claimed Williams stuck a pistol in his face and boasted of killing Sealey's cousin.
His cousin, Delrico Willingham, had been found shot multiple times May 14, 2006, in the yard of his E. Austin Avenue home.
"I'm the one that killed your cousin ... . I hit him nine times. When he was falling and reaching for his gun, I hit him four more times," Williams allegedly told Sealey, according to court records.
Although Williams told police he had nothing to do with the slaying, police considered him a "person of interest" in the unsolved case and other homicides.
But there were other reasons for the pair's beef with Williams.
Sealey claimed that Williams was among a group that had shot up his neighborhood with AK-47 rifles, while Reed had sold Williams a set of wheel rims for $250 but was upset because he thought Williams should have paid $1,000.
When Reed offered to settle the issue for $100, he told police that Williams refused.
Adding to the tension was the fact that Williams was mad at Reed for getting his sister pregnant.
In March, Williams claimed Reed had shot at him, but Williams told police he didn't report it because he didn't want to get killed.
The simmering feud boiled over July 6, 2006.
Sealey and Reed were headed to get something to eat with a friend, Michael L. Smith, when they spotted Williams riding in the back seat of a 1996 Mercury Sable taking an afternoon test drive on Carpenter Road near N. Saginaw Road just over the Flint border in Genesee Township.
Williams, whose father owned the nearby used car dealership, had offered to go on the test drive with a Flint woman looking to buy a car for her daughter's graduation.
NiYauna, a cousin to the woman's brother-in-law, had gone along on the drive with her older sister, 9-year-old Teaunna.
As Reed drove, Sealey opened fire with a 9mm pistol.
"Somebody is shooting! Somebody is shooting!" NiYauna screamed.
The bullets shattered the back windows but missed Williams, who was sitting with NiYauna and Teaunna.
When the shooting stopped, NiYauna lay on the back seat.
"She was just like she was sleeping," said the family friend who was driving the Sable.
But NiYauna was bleeding to death from a bullet that entered the right side of her chest and punctured her lung and heart before leaving through the other side.
Teaunna, herself suffering from a gunshot wound to the back, prayed for her sister.
Within hours, NiYauna was dead.
"A couple of tears came out of my eyes, but not a lot," Smith told police.
Aftermath
More violence followed almost immediately after NiYauna's death.
Two days after the shooting, a family friend was wounded when gunfire sounded outside the home of NiYauna's family.
Family members could not be reached for comment.
Within days of the shooting, police got word that the girl's uncle had put a hit on her killers.
The uncle, Deion J.L. Smith, 32, was Flint rapper "Bone Skanless," who told mourners at NiYauna's funeral that the girl was his favorite niece.
Smith, who had beaten murder charges in Flint four years earlier, had a reputation as a rapper who lived the gangsta lifestyle that he and his Skanbino Mob bandmates extolled on songs such as "Callin' All Killaz" and "Killaz on Yo Team."
He had also earned the attention of a police task force trying to link him and his associates to a string of homicides that stretched beyond Flint.
But the task force lost its primary target two weeks after NiYauna's funeral.
Deion Smith and a female friend were standing outside NiYauna's E. Alma Avenue home when they were cut down by a spray of automatic gunfire. The friend survived, but Smith did not.
Another youngster fell victim July 27, 2006, when a house on Forest Hill Avenue was firebombed, critically injuring an 8-year-old girl related to the woman who was shot when Smith was killed.
Four days later, one of Smith's fellow Skanbino Mob members, Marcus "Young Kee" Mosley, was found dead of a gunshot wound in front of a home on Lawndale Avenue.
Both Smith's and Mosley's slayings remain unsolved, but investigators say they believe Mosley might have been shot accidentally while trying to avenge Smith's death.
A third member of the group told an online music magazine that their deaths had nothing to do with rap.
"It was bigger than rap. They fell victim to some 'hood (stuff)," Young D told Midwest-Connection.net.
That "hood stuff" has people in those north-side neighborhoods living in fear that they or someone they love will be the next innocent victim.
Harry Ryan, who lives a short distance from the home where Willingham was killed, said only young people venture onto the streets after dark.
"That's just the way it is," said Ryan. "There are certain rules you have to follow to live in this area."
The sentences
Although he escaped the bullet that ended NiYauna's life, Williams' luck ran out June 12, when he was shot to death at a home on E. Dewey Street in Flint.
His unsolved slaying came less than a week before a judge handed down sentences for the three men involved in NiYauna's death.
Sealey, 24, is serving 35-70 years in prison for his plea to second-degree murder; 23-50 years each for four counts of assault with intent to murder; 2-5 years for carrying a concealed weapon; and 2 years for felony firearm use.
Reed, 22, of Flint was given 10 to 22 1/2 years in prison for a manslaughter plea and 2 years for felony firearm use. He was also ordered to pay court fees and costs of nearly $2,700.
Smith, 19, got a year in jail and $1,200 in fines and fees for his plea of accessory after the fact.
His sentence already over with time served, the judge warned Smith he might be better off serving his probation somewhere other than Genesee County.
The end?
With young men willing to kill one another just because they live in different neighborhoods or attended different elementary schools, Leyton doesn't see an end to the violence.
"If young men continue on that path, ... more innocent bystanders will die," he said.
But Ryan said he believes at least the violent fallout from NiYauna's death has finally ended.
"Everybody's either dead or in jail," said Ryan. |
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Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:16 am |
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wc11
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It is unfortunate to read a headline that reads Flint Street Justice, which leads everyone who reads the Journal or mlive.com to attribute all of Flint to this horrific violence. Why not state North Flint Street Justice. When will the North End of Flint wake-up? It has been like this for years and it keeps the negative image of Flint alive.
I was downtown Flint yesterday thinking why are individuals from the burbs afraid of Flint...well, thank you for the North End for the answer!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Sun Jul 15, 2007 1:27 pm |
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Al Garcia
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| Come on WC11...it is all of Flint. Its this type of behavior that gives the entire city of Flint a bad name. The entire city is a shameless pit, regardless if this happens on Alma Street, Richfield Road on the eastside or Court Street. You must be one of those people who wears blinders when driving thru Flint. Come on, face the truth. You know the truth about Flint, I know it, the entire country knows the truth about Flint. |
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WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU PEOPLE DONE TO MY HOMETOWN? I KNEW I SHOULD OF HIRED A BABYSITTER! ALL THE RIFF RAFF OUT NOW!
alberto.garcia.85@hotmail.com |
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Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:50 am |
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wc11
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According to officer friends they predict that over 80 % of shootings and murders take place in the North End of Flint. Possibly higher. It is not all of Flint that is encountering the bloodshed. Thus the majority of news on Flint takes place from this area. I am in Flint quite often visiting friends and family and don't feel unsafe. Could I be robbed on the East Side South Side or in the Burbs...sure...but the odds are much less.
Many people would like to see Flint return to the great community it once was and it has to start with attitudes. It is great to see U of M Flint building dorms downtown. Oh by the way...we also have one of the greatest Enginerring Colleges in the U.S. It is possible for Flint to turn around!!! |
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Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:17 pm |
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Festeraeb
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| It wasnt to many years ago it was the east side and we were talking about the davison road and the state streets werent safe to enter. Flint's poverty, drug, and thug problems are on the rise. It is going to take a strong leader to bring flint back. It is going to take just as strong council members as well as a mayor. Our current mayor and council isnt setting good examples on how to play nice and co-operate |
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Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:01 am |
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Ted Jankowski
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Personally I'm appalled at the inference that this is "Street Justice"!
There is no "JUSTICE" in the article at all.
It's a tradgedy, it's a crime, but it is in no way remotely any type of JUSTICE!
Sensationalised headlines that don't relate to the story. Same as the Journal creating racial tension from comments made in the first mayorial debate. There were no racial statements. That was again, a bad interptation by the journal. Just as this is not even close being being any type of "Street Justice". Maybe it could be called Street Warfare! But there isn't any type of justice involved. |
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Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:47 am |
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00SL2
F L I N T O I D
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The first sentence of the Flint Journal article describes "street justice" -- "a yearlong cycle of
retaliation
slayings and
retribution"
-- the criminal's way of
getting even
with another outside our legal system. Yes, it's appalling and it's the greatest reason people are unwilling to come forward with known information to help get criminals off the streets. There was a form of "street justice" on the east side; a man was found murdered in his trailer(?), retaliation for telling what he knew or testifying against somebody's kid about an arson case(?). I don't recall the details, anyone remember what I'm talking about?
See:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521617987
Street Justice, Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld - Cambridge University Press
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Criminology
Bruce A Jacobs
University of Texas, Dallas
Richard Wright
University of Missouri, St. Louis
Paperback (ISBN-13: 9780521617987 | ISBN-10: 0521617987)
Also available in Hardback | eBook format
Published May 2006
Lecturers can request examination copies for course consideration.
"Street criminals live in a dangerous world, but they cannot realistically rely on the criminal justice system to protect them from predation by fellow lawbreakers; they are on their own when it comes to dealing with crimes perpetrated against them and often use retaliation as a mechanism for deterring and responding to victimization. Although retaliation lies at the heart of much of the violence that plagues many inner-city neighborhoods across the United States, it has received scant attention from criminologists. As a result, the structure, process, and forms of retaliation in the real world setting of urban America remain poorly understood. Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal World explores the face of modern day retaliation from the perspective of currently active criminals who have experienced it first hand, as offenders, victims, or both."
Last edited by 00SL2 on Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:45 pm |
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Ted Jankowski
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I understand where your coming from. It's sad that culturial elites give terms like justice meanings that they really don't have. This is a bigger issue than what is really being discussed.
Instead of calling it what it really is. We give it a socially acceptable name which in a strange way legitimises the crimnal aspect of the crime.
Maybe I'm not being clear where I'm coming from on this one. |
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Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:34 am |
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Adam
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O.K. so maybe Flint retaliation murders would be a better title but that might be above an 8th grade reading level.
For a person that has their freind or family member mureders the choice can be retaliate or watch as the person goes free. I think we only solve about 50% of the murder cases. If we were more succesfful at solving crimes we would have less retaliation murders. It's harder to kill someone if that person is in jail. |
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Adam
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Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:13 am |
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