As an emergency room nurse, Melisse James is accustomed to seeing gunshot victims.
She never imagined one of her four children would be among them.
Her second oldest, Craig Corley, 22, was shot to death on Oct. 4. He never even made it to the hospital.
She got the call just before 6:30 a.m. He was lying dead on the ground outside Live Oak Plantation apartments as homicide detectives worked around him.
“Nobody decided to bring my son in to work on him,” James said at her midtown home last week, tears welling. “But I just have to trust that’s the way God wanted it to be.”
Corley was one of 33 people who lost their lives to violence in Chatham County last year, most of them due to gunfire in Savannah.
Seven of those shootings took the lives of kids.
“When we lose children like we did, it touches everyone,” Savannah-Chatham Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin said at a West 54th Street church in late November, not long after a week that saw two children — 2 and 12 — shot to death and another, 6, injured by gunfire.
Shootings in general were up in Savannah and unincorporated Chatham County last year, with about 198 investigated by metro police. That was 35 more than in 2013.
Metro police Maj. Larry Branson, who oversees the department’s violent crimes investigators, said residents and officers need to start working more closely together if things are going to change for the better.
He said his officers want to solve the crimes but as a community and department, they also want to prevent them.
“And it goes much further than just ‘What are the police going to do about it?’ This is a social issue for this community,” he said.
Violent crime up 8.8 percent
Only one Chatham County homicide last year, the Jan. 18 rape and slaying of Lisa Marie Pynn in her Port Wentworth home, took place in a jurisdiction other than Savannah or unincorporated Chatham County.
“We had 32 homicides for the year, and that is not acceptable,” Branson said.
Two of those cases — both involving the shooting deaths of juveniles, 12 and 15 — were ruled accidental and resulted in involuntary manslaughter charges being filed.
“We have and have had a problem in this community with people using guns offensively, and it’s got to stop,” Branson said.
As of Wednesday, detectives had made 21 arrests in 18 of those cases. Two other homicides from 2014 are waiting to go before a grand jury. The homicide unit also cleared three cases from 2013, Branson said.
In several of the slayings, Branson said, those who died lived lives that put them at risk. Some were found to be associated with others who were involved in drugs, robberies or reckless conduct, he said.
Motives in last year’s homicides that have been closed include domestic violence, robbery, drug-related drama, reckless conduct, out-of-control anger and lovers’ quarrels, Branson said.
In most instances, he said, police determined the victim and suspect knew each other in some capacity, whether closely or through acquaintances.
“We don’t have random acts of violence in most cases,” he said.
In all, metro police reported that violent crime rose 8.8 percent in their jurisdiction from 2013.
Street robberies, commercial robberies and rapes were up along with shootings. Property crimes, driven by thefts, increased by only about half a percent.
Overall, crime in metro’s jurisdiction was up 1.3 percent from 2013, which saw one of the lowest reported crime rates in years.
Last year, at the direction of then-interim Chief Julie Tolbert, an aggravated assault unit was added to metro’s team of violent crimes investigators. The department investigated 371 aggravated assault cases, including those in which firearms were not used.
Having five detectives dedicated to working the aggravated assault cases, Branson said, gives his 10 homicide investigators more time to focus on their cases.
“Our investigators are relentless in pursuing these cases,” he said. “We don’t stop.”
The major said detectives will be reaching back into more years-old cases in 2015.
Branson said he doesn’t like to use the term “cold case.” Nonetheless, the department last year launched a Web page dedicated to keeping a spotlight on long-unsolved homicides.
“We’re confident we will solve some of those older cases this year,” he said.
In addition to the aggravated assault unit, violent crimes investigators also got a boost late last year from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In November, Lumpkin asked for the state agency’s help the day after the slaying of a 2-year-old girl came on the heels of a weekend during which the department investigated nine shootings.
Branson said two GBI agents work within the homicide unit and provide support in both death and aggravated assault investigations.
“They have been a tremendous asset to us,” Branson said. “They’ve opened up information systems. They’ve been able to provide intelligence. We know that if we need additional support, they’re going to be there for us. They’re experienced.”
Metro’s detectives also work regularly with the FBI’s local violent crime task force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
‘... justice on the other side’
Melisse James still sees her son’s face every day.
A drawing of Craig Corley — given to her by his friends at the funeral — hangs in a hallway. When she relaxes on her living room couch in the evening, she wraps herself in a blanket bearing the image of her son’s face.
“We keep him very much alive,” said James, 44. “So that makes it not too sad.”
Corley lived with his older brother, 24, in Georgetown. His two younger siblings are 15 and 12.
James said he was the type of person who just wanted to know everyone. He liked to sing, and he had a lot of friends.
“He was really just a good-hearted person,” she said. “He was still trying to find his way at the time he died.”
Corley had a felony pot arrest when he was 19, charged with intent to distribute. His mother said she didn’t mind talking about it because she wants people to know how difficult it can be for people who’ve had criminal charges — even nonviolent ones — to overcome the past.
James said she was trying to get Corley to take courses at Savannah Technical College, but he hadn’t started. Sometimes he could get temporary work through employment agencies, and he also worked with his dad at an auto shop, James said.
She said he got wrapped up in an image that made him and others feel they needed to be tough and stand for something in order to fit in.
“Outside he’d appear to be this hard person,” she said. “... But his true friends knew he was as gentle as can be.”
At his funeral, people told stories about how giving he was, she said.
She quit watching the news after Corley died because of all the shootings — she was especially upset by how homicide victims’ histories are sometimes portrayed. What matters, James said, is that someone was killed, not that he or she had issues in the past.
Since Corley’s death, she said, several of his friends have told her they have decided to make changes in their lives.
“It’s just amazing how these guys who are supposed to be so tough ... come in here and just break down and cry and hug me,” she said. “It’s like something somewhere broke down where they didn’t get all that they needed.”
It makes her feel slightly better, she said, if Corley’s death inspires even one person to make a change.
“I don’t know what his life would have been, because none of us at 22 are the people we are now,” James said. “At 22 years old, I didn’t know that I would be a registered nurse and have a family. I just knew that I wanted to have fun. And I did get a chance to turn my life around.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t get to do that, but at least people are learning from his death — that you don’t have time.”
On the morning Corley was killed, police were called to Live Oak Plantation apartments in the 8500 block of Waters Avenue on reports of shots being fired. A resident told officers a white Ford SUV was seen speeding away after shots rang out.
Police then found Corley dead with one hand on a gun, according to a preliminary incident report.
Two of Corley’s friends, who told officers they had just come from a club, said they went into an apartment just before they heard the shots.
James said she heard her son took friends home to the apartments from a club and he and another man began to argue about a woman.
She said she hasn’t heard much from police lately but believes her son’s killer will be put behind bars.
“Even if they don’t get justice on this side, it’ll be justice on the other side,” she said. “You don’t just take a life and get away with it.”
Toll on juveniles
On Nov. 18, 2-year-old Kiaja Smalls was shot and killed as she slept in the living room of her family’s apartment at Hampstead Oaks. Two shots were fired from outside the apartment and investigators had “no doubt” the unit was targeted, Lumpkin said.
Four days later, Keith Passmore, 12, was shot and killed at a party on the city’s eastside.
“None of these children were specifically targeted,” Branson said. “No one sought out to hurt these children.”
Branson said those who commit violent crimes in Savannah don’t seem to have any regard for who gets in their way.
“To these predators, it could be you, it could be me, our children, our pets,” he said. “They don’t seem to have a sense of caring who gets hurt or who gets killed.”
The homicides of Smalls and Passmore, as well as the Jan. 22, 2014, shooting death of 15-year-old William Elijah Norman on West Victory Drive, remain unsolved.
Murder charges were filed in the shooting deaths of two other Savannah teenagers last year, 16-year-old Quahfee Murphy and 17-year-old Wayne Edwards.
In two other fatalities, police filed charges of involuntary manslaughter against other people involved, an 11-year-old and an 18-year-old.
In those cases, Montrez Burroughs, 12, died in April, and Jamari Batts, 15, died in December. Investigators said Burroughs and Batts were handling firearms with others when the guns were accidentally discharged.
Other children were injured in separate shootings, such as a 6-year-old girl who police said was shot in November by a man arguing with her mother before school.
Another high-profile series of shootings in October prompted the school district to postpone Savannah High’s homecoming game. They were afraid the off-campus incidents might carry over.
Engaging residents
In addition to police-initiated efforts to reduce violence in Savannah’s streets, other efforts are underway.
City Council late last year approved a roughly $240,000 contract with John Jay College to launch an effort called Ceasefire in Savannah. The program, which has had success in other cities, involves merging community and law enforcement.
Plus, a group of Savannah ministers has a goal of starting a community dialogue to foster a way to provide jobs, particularly for ex-prisoners re-entering into society.
“Sometimes (people) have not finished high school and have no reading skills, and we need to help them with their reading skills and their social skills,” the Rev. Thurmond N. Tillman said in December. “We cannot lump them all together — there are different backgrounds.”
Tillman is among several ministers participating in the local formation of Healing Communities of Georgia.
Part of what Healing Communities seeks to do, said Tillman, the pastor at First African Baptist Church, is get as many houses of worship as possible to serve as welcoming places for residents who are returning from prison.
Additionally, they want to bring employers into the conversation — ones who will keep open minds about giving people with checkered pasts a chance. There are some outlets, like the police department’s Savannah Impact Program, that help probationers and parolees get their lives back on track.
Having that support and opportunity, Tillman said, could keep a person from going back to bad habits.
“We’re trying to break that cycle,” he said.
Other than crime-fighting operations, Branson said, the best things police can do is put their feet on the ground and engage in “some open, sincere dialogue with our community.”
“This is a fragile time for police-community relations, and we want to assure everyone in our community that we are completely transparent,” he said. “We are completely open to sitting down with anyone any time and talking about concerns and issues that they have.”
Residents and officers need to engage each other more in positive ways that result in detectives getting information they need to crack cases, he said.
Throughout last year, police said they had trouble getting residents to call them with tips. One effort they tried was reaching out to clergy and encouraging residents who feel uncomfortable talking to police — or even the anonymous CrimeStoppers service — to confide in pastors.
Branson said police have received tips that way without anyone’s identity being compromised.
“There are people in this community who know who these predators are — these guys with guns ... who are doing the shootings,” he said.
Police want to find them, and they want the violence to stop — just like everyone else, he said.
When he grew up, Branson said, a disagreement, however heated, would rarely escalate to the point a firearm was drawn.
Melisse James agreed.
“Kids don’t think they can fist fight anymore,” she said. “They think that it has to be a permanent result — an end result, which is sad, because you see so many moms burying their children.”
MAKE THE CALL
Anyone with information that could help police solve violent crimes is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 9 12-234-2020 or text CRIMES (274637) using the keyword CSTOP2020. Tipsters remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward.
A tip line also is open directly to investigators at 912-525-3124 and most area clergy have agreed to serve as liaisons for anyone who would like to share information with police anonymously.
CHATHAM COUNTY HOMICIDES IN 2014
January
• Randy Brown, Jan. 15: Brown, 39, died at Memorial University Medical Center from gunshot wounds. Lashannon Jabar Green, 35, was charged with murder.
• Marvin Hills, Jan. 17: Hills, 24, died at Memorial after he was found suffering from a gunshot wound in a car in the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Unsolved.
• Lisa Marie Pynn, Jan. 18: Pynn, 33, was found dead in the bedroom of her Port Wentworth home. Torrey Scott, 38, faces murder, rape and robbery charges.
• William Elijah Norman, Jan. 22: Norman, 15, was shot to death in front of a house in the 900 block of West Victory Drive. Unsolved.
February
• Rashaad Spann, Feb. 14: Spann, 20, died at Memorial after he was found shot in a car near the east end of Hawaii Avenue. Fashad Kennedy, 20, was charged with murder.
March
• Michael Bruce Hall, March 9: Hall, 52, was found shot to death in front of his house in the first block of West 61st Street. Unsolved.
• Barry Trevon Williams, March 17: Williams, 24, was found shot to death on the 2000 block of Mississippi Avenue. This case will go before a grand jury.
April
• Kathleen Sheehan, April 4: Sheehan, 45, was found dead in her Montgomery Crossroad apartment. Her husband, Daniel Patrick Sheehan, was charged with murder.
• Michael Williard James, April 8: James, 31, was shot to death in his SUV in a yard in the 600 block of West 58th Street. Jerome Coast Jr., 31, was charged with murder.
• Malcolm Xavier Raphael Mitchell, April 20: Mitchell, 21, was found shot at Waters Avenue and East 38th Street. Unsolved.
• Quahfee Murphy, April 26: Murphy, 16, was shot to death at a home in the 3800 block of Bull Street. Norman Koonce Jr., 27, was charged with murder.
June
• Lauren Brown Smart, June 7: Smart, 34, was found dead on the floor of the bedroom of her Walthour Road home. Her husband, Norman Smart, was convicted of murder.
• Terrance Felder, June 8: Felder, 48, was found shot to death on the 1100 block of East 42nd Street. Unsolved.
• Michael Jerome Allen, June 13: Allen, 52, died two days after he was found shot near the intersection of East Lathrop Avenue and Damon Street. Phell Hudson, 54, was charged with murder.
July
• Arkeen Abron, July 18: Abron, 29, was found shot in the 1200 block of East Seiler Avenue. Lamont Anderson, 38, was indicted for murder.
•Ivory Carter, July 30: Carter, 51, was found shot near Hampstead Avenue and Roger Wood Street. Rashard Warfield Mosley, 18, and Laquan Sharelle Brown, 20, were charged with murder.
August
• Wayne Edwards, Aug. 16: Edwards, 17, was found shot to death in a car on the 1200 block of Elliot Avenue. Jo’Andre Robbins, 18, was charged with murder.
• Devonte Mumford, Aug. 29: Mumford, 21, was shot to death in the parking lot of a sports bar and restaurant on the 4400 block of Skidaway Road. Unsolved.
October
• Craig Corley, Oct. 4: Corley, 22, was found shot to death outside of a Live Oak Plantation apartments on Waters Avenue. This case will go before a grand jury.
• Marion D. McClendon, Oct. 15: McClendon, 29, died at Memorial the day after he was found shot at Utah Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Unsolved.
• Tyrone Ellis, Oct. 27: Ellis, 24, was shot inside a residence on the 2000 block of Reynolds Street. Unsolved.
November
• Beverly Jones, Nov. 1: Jones, 35, was found dead in her house on the 1100 block of Graydon Street. Her boyfriend, Roman Eugene Hills, 38, was charged with murder.
• T’arsha Williams, Nov. 15: Williams, 22, was found shot to death in a car that rolled into a house on the 2200 block of Hudson Street. Trinika Latrell Beamon, Taylor Lavon LaCount and William Darnell Davis were charged with murder.
• Willie Lee Bostick Jr., Nov. 16: Bostick, 25, was found shot to death at Westlake Apartments. Unsolved.
• Kiaja Smalls, Nov. 18: Smalls, 2, was shot to death inside an apartment at Hampstead Oaks. Unsolved.
• Keith Passmore, Nov. 22: Passmore, 12, was shot to death outside of a party on the 2200 block of Vicksburg Drive. Unsolved.
December
• Romondo Ashley, Dec. 20: Ashley, 22, died at Memorial a day after he was found shot during a domestic dispute on the 1300 block of East Duffy Street. Jeremy Dennis Scott, 27, was charged with murder.
• Jamal Elliot, Dec. 21: Elliot, 24, was found shot to death on the front porch of an apartment in Yamacraw Village. Unsolved.
• William Fredric Whitsett, Dec. 23: Whitsett’s body was found, apparently shot to death, at a construction site off Ga. 204 near King George Boulevard. Kevin Da Palmer, 23, Genevieve Elizabeth Meeks, 20, and Bradley Bates, 22, were charged with murder.