Grant Beach residents on edge after 2 homicides in 1 week
A 19-year-old man was shot to death in a Springfield home that sits directly across the street from a house where another 19-year-old man was shot and killed six days ago in a seemingly unconnected incident, police say.
Some people who live on the street in Springfield's Grant Beach neighborhood were shocked after the first homicide. But two homicides in one week?
"It's kind of a sinking feeling," said 83-year-old Helen Miles, who lives in a red house with neatly trimmed shrubs at the end of the 1400 block of West Hamilton Street.
Officers responded to a home on the 1500 block of West Hamilton Street shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday and found the body of Zechariah S. Miles, according to a news release. As of Wednesday evening, online court records show no one has been charged with killing Zechariah Miles.
Helen Miles (not related to Zechariah Miles) has lived in her house since 1960 and couldn't recall a single homicide taking place on her street until last Thursday morning.
That's when police found 19-year-old David Shockley — who had been shot twice — lying in the carport of a house midway down the block. Inside the home, another man had been shot and injured and a woman had been hit in the head with a flashlight, according to court documents.
Two women have been charged with burglaries in connection to the incident. As of Wednesday, online court records show no one had been charged with killing Shockley.
Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams posted on his Twitter account that the two homicides do not appear to be connected, saying there is "nothing to indicate anything more than a tragic coincidence."
Michele Friederich has lived on Hamilton Street since 2004 and said she was scared after the first homicide — especially because it was unclear whether or not the suspects were in police custody.
Friederich said the second homicide left her "unnerved."
Still, she said she loves her home and won't be leaving the neighborhood.
"I refuse to let fear get me out of here ... I got a dog and a can of wasp spray and a tee-ball bat," she said. "I'm not gonna buy a gun, but I kind of wish I had a bigger dog."
Friederich described her dog, Dutz, as "a fat wiener dog with a real loud bark."
Jimmy Walker, 16, and his family live two houses east of the home where the homicide took place Wednesday morning. He said he woke up early Wednesday morning and heard a woman's voice.
About 10 minutes later, Walker said he heard what sounded like two gunshots and saw police arrive on the scene shortly after that.
One house down from Walker's lives Otto Barke, 96. Barke said he moved from a farm south of Billings to Hamilton Street in mid-January.
"It's getting wicked," Barke said.
On the opposite end of the block next to Kansas Expressway lives 70-year-old Jerry Melton. On Wednesday afternoon, he stood outside his home without a shirt and smoking a cigarette while he looked beyond the crime scene tape at the street he's lived on for seven years.
"It's strange," Melton said of the two 19-year-old men shot dead. "When I was 19, I was working ... There's too many people nowadays that aren't working."
His solution is more jobs, more community involvement and more church.
"There ain't enough God in this country," Melton said. "That'd stop a lot of it right there."
Vigil for Zechariah Miles
Airen Cox, 20, said she was friends with Zechariah Miles since the third grade.
Asked her reaction when she learned Wednesday morning that Miles had died, Cox replied, “Instant tears.”
“Everybody loved him,” Cox said. “He just impacted people’s lives and made them smile even when they were down.”
Cox said Miles was goofy and had a big personality. She said she was crushed by Wednesday’s news.
Cox is planning a candlelight vigil for Miles on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Meador Park in Springfield.
The vigil will be held near the tennis courts, Cox said, and anyone is welcome to attend.
“He deserves some sort of celebration of his life before his funeral,” Cox said. “He didn’t deserve this.”