Robert Allen

Detroit Free Press

It was an exceptionally violent weekend in Detroit. Twenty-seven people shot. Three died.

Despite marked improvements in the city over the last several years, an especially serious problem remains: gun violence.

City officials say that while crime in general is on the decline, the number of shootings is unacceptable. They say they're working to connect with neighborhoods and coordinate within the justice system to make people believe that if they shoot somebody, they'll go to prison.

"We are down significantly in every category except gun violence, which is, of course, what's on people's minds," Mayor Mike Duggan said Monday. "A great majority of shootings are people who have beefs with each other and are using guns to settle those beefs."

The crime was worse than normal in a city that's averaging 17.6 nonfatal shootings and 5.2 homicides per week this year. The weekend's fatal shootings spread across three major Detroit areas on the first official weekend of summer, a season when violence can be expected to increase.

"There's always more crime — street crime, at least — in the warmer months," said Brad Smith, professor of criminal justice at Wayne State University. "People are outside more, so there's a lot more opportunity for interaction between victims and perpetrators."

As of June 21, Detroit police recorded 129 homicides this year to date, a number falling between the past two years' data. By this time in 2014, there had been 116 homicides reported; in 2013, there had been 146.

"Winter 2014 was unbelievably bitter," Detroit police spokeswoman June West said, adding that the cold, snowy weather likely made for fewer killings that year.

As for all nonfatal shootings, there had been 440 as of June 21. That's slightly down from 448 in 2014 and about a 15% drop from 520 in 2013.

Meanwhile, West said property offenses so far this year are down 33% and carjackings are down 35% from 2013.

The weekend violence shows that no area of the city is immune. There were two shootings in Greektown, a downtown area popular among visitors. One of those was fatal, as were shootings on both the east and west sides.

While Duggan said most shootings are mostly over personal differences, it's often innocents who get hit.

Sunday evening on the city's east side, a mother and her 2-year-old were shot and injured amid a neighborhood dispute over dogs that didn't involve them. It was a day after a scene at a neighborhood party at a community basketball court on the west side where 12 people were shot, one of them killed.

Regarding that mass shooting near Dexter and Webb, Police Chief James Craig said residents must overcome fear of talking to police for progress to be made against "urban terrorists." He said witnesses are often scared perpetrators will retaliate against them. Despite shots fired into a crowd of 200-300 people including children, investigators are having problems with cooperation.

"Imagine a scene like that, and then nobody sees anything," Craig said at a news conference Monday. "But then I had to take a step back and say, 'This is a community that feels, in some way, that they're powerless.' "

He said "dope houses" appear to be taking over in some neighborhoods, even hosting their own community festivities to bring legitimacy to their illegal activities. Craig aims to curb this by building bonds with residents.

"As we empower our community, they have a willingness to share information," Craig said.

A minister at King Solomon Baptist Church in the neighborhood of the mass shooting, Rev. Charles Williams II, said Monday that Craig's descriptor of "urban terrorism" is insensitive.

"It has more to do with the fact that education is horrible (and) joblessness and poverty rates are way too high," he said. "They're not shooting at people based on any ideology or philosophical or theological thing."

Williams said that in the absence of police in the neighborhood — roughly bounded by I-96 and M-10, several blocks south of the Davison Freeway — people are shooting and killing to survive. He called on elected officials to change gun policies and address the broader issues of poverty.

"It's easier to get a hold of a gun than it is a library book," he said, adding that there's distrust of police and that Craig "needs to do a better job of building that relationship."

Williams and Craig said Monday that police and neighborhood residents are to meet at 6 p.m. tonight in a community center near the shootings scene to discuss the problems.

Duggan said the city is in the early stages of bringing more gun-violence cases to federal court. Looking to cities such as Boston and Cincinnati, he said, success has come from coordinating efforts among police, prosecutors and federal agencies.

Not all the people shot last weekend were necessarily victims. One of the three homicides involved a Coney Island employee on the city's east side who apparently stopped a robber by shooting him dead, police said. The incident remains under investigation.

Craig previously has encouraged citizens to arm themselves in self-defense.

Contact Robert Allen: rallen@freepress.com or on Twitter @rallenMI

Detroit homicides*

Here are the number of homicides and non-fatal shootings through June 21 for the last three years.

2013: 146

2014: 116

2015: 129

Detroit non-fatal shootings

2013: 520

2014: 448

2015: 440

Source: Detroit Police Department

*All, including firearms