Posted on 09/14/2009 11:53:53 AM PDT by greatdefender
MANATEE — County officials are holding a gun buyback and community forum on violence in light of the second fatal teen shooting in a month.
“You never know what guns you’re going to get,” said Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube when asked about the gun buyback. “You never know if you’re going to get guns that are kept off the street.”
Authorities still haven’t found where 18-year-old Daniel Williams allegedly discarded a gun authorities say he used to shoot a Bayshore High School cheerleader.
Detectives say Williams fired into a car full of cheerleaders, hitting and killing 17-year-old Jasmine Thompson on Friday night after a high school football game. Williams gave detectives a general idea of where the gun was.
The sheriff’s office had a gun buyback a couple of months ago, and 77 guns were turned in for cash.
The buyback allows gun owners to trade in guns with no ID needed or questions asked. Participants will receive $50 for revolvers and $100 for rifles or shotguns.
The gun buyback will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, 600 301 Blvd. W., Bradenton.
Before the buyback, community leaders will have a forum on how to curtail violence in hopes of coming up with a blueprint to address the issue.
“I can only hope that these discussions we’re having lead to less violence in the community,” Steube said.
The forum is from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Sept. 19 at Johnson Middle School, 2121 26th Ave. E., Bradenton.
In the meantime, authorities continue to investigate Thompson’s death.
Sheriff’s reports say just before 11 p.m., Friday, Williams walked up to a car holding Thompson, in the area of 37th Avenue East and 11th Street Court East, outside Southeast High School, and made a comment of a sexual nature to the four girls in the car.
When the driver of the car drove off, witnesses say Williams fired four shots at the vehicle, with one of the bullets hitting Thompson in the head. Williams, a former Horizons alternative school student, has been arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting. A motive for why Williams opened fire is unknown and may never be know, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Dave Bristow said.
“We don’t know. I don’t think we are ever going to have a clear motive,” Bristow said.
Detectives have several witnesses to the shooting and Williams has also made statements to investigators, but the hope is still to recover the gun.
“We would like to have it,” said Bristow. “He has given us locations around the area but we haven’t found anything.”
Bristow declined to discuss the nature of statements Williams has given to detectives, or whether he confessed to the shooting.
“He has been somewhat cooperative, but we aren’t going to go into what he told us,” said Bristow.
Thompson is the second teenager shot in a month with ties to Bayshore High School. In August, authorities say former Southeast High School student Byron Galloway opened fire on 18-year-old recent Bayshore graduate DeJuan Williams in his backyard. Sheriff’s reports say Williams had been searching for boys who had been in his house with his sister without his parents’ permission.
In Galloway’s case, detectives recovered the gun detectives say he used, but have been unsuccessful in finding how the teen got the gun. It is unclear if Williams obtained his firearm legally because it is legal for gun owners to sell firearms to person’s 18 or older. Without concealed weapon’s permit, however, Williams would have been in violation of state law by carrying the gun.
On Tuesday, dozens of public officials gathered to condemn both killings, and gun violence in general, pleading for parents and students to report anyone with weapons.
Professor James Wright, a University of Central Florida sociologist who has studied guns and gun violence, said when kids end up with guns it is usually a weapon obtained from a home, not through illicit street level sales.
“Guns coming from the home are a much bigger source for kids to get guns than stereotype of the creepy guy in the trench coat selling them guns from his trunk,” Wright said. “Kids often takes guns from their homes, and they are passed around and passed around until it is hard to tell where they end up.”
Wright also said the majority guns that do end up on the street for illegal sale come from burglaries from residences.
“For someone committing a burglary, guns are about the best thing they can find. They are portable, in demand and keep their value,” Wright said. “Unlike something like jewelry which have some value but little on the street, a gun worth $300 in a store is worth $300 on the street.”
Meanwhile, Thompson’s cheerleading teammates continue to mourn the loss of their friend, and raise money for her family. On Wednesday, members of the Bayshore cheerleading squad gathered donations at the Mexicali Border Cafe restaurant.
“She was such a good person,” said team captain Kristi Drobecker. “We are so upset this happened. It is shocking for all of us.”
The team is expected to be on hand at a memorial for Thompson at the Bayshore football field Thursday, and Drobecker said at future games an easel with a large picture of their teammate will remain at the center of the squad as they perform their routines around it.
“She was the type of person that loved being the center of attention. So we are going to do that for her,” said Drobecker.
The memorial for Thompson on Thursday will be at Bayshore High School, 5401 34th St. W., at 4:30 p.m., school officials said.
Beth Burger, criminal justice reporter, contributed to this report.
And there’s no telling how many wonderful old guns get turned in by little old ladies, only to be unceremoniously shredded or melted down. It’s a travesty.
No telling how many dealers are a block or two away offering $55 for revolvers and $105 for rifles or shotguns.
One thing is for sure, idiot, you WON'T be getting those guns that thugs use, off the streets.
You WILL be getting fine firearms owned by poor widows who need money and don't realize what their husbands actually left them, and pieces of crap nobody in their right mind would use, and maybe the kinds of guns thugs have damaged in the line of “duty” so they can't use them anymore.
The morons who come up with criminally fraudulent ideas like this should read that fairy tale about “belling the cat”.
Because they think just like the mice in that fairy tale.
What about pistols?
Here's a novel idea: how about getting the criminals kept off the street?
The kind of people who trade guns in in these bogus shams know little or nothing about them, or they turn in garbage nobody would use which isn’t worth the tax dollars paid for them.
Its a scam - ALL the way around.
Does Manatee county have a federal firearms license?
I wonder how many valuable guns are turned in by idiots for a few bucks. The cities that hold these stupid buy-backs are missing a chance to sell the guns to dealers for money. I suspect most of the good stuff goes into some cop’s pocket anyway.
Maybe they should have a testacle buy-back program to fight rape.
I read the headline and wondered if the story would feature an enormous aquatic mammal saying “Increase the peace, yo.”
I’m sure those criminals and gang bangers are lining up to give their weapons in
It is odd that the gentle giant of the deep wants guns.
Forum shmorum.... and gun buy-backs are a dime a dozen.
The REAL news as far as I am concerned is the talking Manatee!
when my mother died, my f***ing sister and my f***ing cousin wanted to give her guns to the police - what a pair of a$$holes. I told them not to do that.
I would show up and give twice that for any of the nicer guns.
I can’t believe that there isn’t a police bazaar before they melt them down for any really nice guns that want to end up in a officers collection.
What the hell does that mean?
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