Keeping guns out of the wrong hands
BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO
[email protected]
March 15, 2007, 9:45 PM EDT
Danielle Baker was only 14 years old when she was killed in a shooting at a birthday party in North Amityville in April.
Thursday, law enforcement authorities, Baker's family and community leaders made ardent calls to residents to continue preventing illegal guns -- like the one that killed Baker -- from falling into the wrong hands.
Police and the Suffolk district attorney's office are asking all county residents with information regarding where or in whose possession an illegal handgun can be found to call Crime Stoppers. The tips will be kept confidential and can be rewarded with up to $2,000.
"Let's honor Danielle," District Attorney Thomas Spota said. "Her dreams, her aspirations -- had she lived."
Officials said Suffolk County is regarded as one of the safest places to live in the country. But some pockets still are marred by violence.
Baker was dancing at a birthday party on Miller Avenue when she was randomly shot in the neck and died minutes later in her 12-year-old sister's arms.Terrell Gray is serving 25 years to life in prison for the crime.
Stepping before the television cameras, and beside relatives, youth and community leaders, Baker's father, Cordell Baker Sr., urged residents to rise above the pressure to stay quiet and save a life by calling the Crime Stoppers number.
"It might save their mother, their father, their sister or their brother," Baker Sr. said.
"I don't want to see none of these kids around me going through what I have," he said.
The First Precinct, whose patrol area includes North Amityville, where the news conference took place, reported 296 instances involving firearms, both imitation and real last year.The volume of reports, ranging from shots fired to crimes like Baker's murder, were the highest in the county. There were 1,046 instances countywide, police said.
As the first part of an initiative to get guns off the street, Suffolk police ran a gun amnesty program in December. That effort netted 510 guns.
Lt. Robert Donohue said this second segment is geared more toward going after weapons that wouldn't voluntarily be turned in by making arrests.
Spota said police will trace the weapon back and investigate where it originated and if it was ever used in a crime.
Karina Singh, vice president of the Keep the Peace Foundation, which was created in Baker's memory, applauded the effort but said it needed to be part of a wider effort to enforce tougher drug laws and reach children from a younger age.
"The parents have to stand up and teach their children," Singh said. "I don't want to see another child die."
Her son, Chris James, 17, said police also need to understand why the guns are in the community to begin with.
"(It's) fear for some," he said.
The Crime Stoppers number is: 800-220-TIPS.