VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Big Bubba towed through Houma
December 18, 2015
Egret in Flight
December 18, 2015
As public officials, educators and police seek ways to attack the root causes of homicides and non-fatal shooting incidents that are becoming commonplace in some local communities, a bloody march to hospitals and graveyards continues largely unabated.
One fact of the problem – easy availability of guns to people who should not have them – is not likely to be abated anytime soon, at least not through tighter regulations.
But law enforcement officials say local gun owners can help in their own way, by keeping weapons in safe, secure places, rather than in cars overnight or even for short periods of time in vehicles that are not locked.
“We have been stressing that for many years,” said Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman. “When someone leaves their car unlocked with weapons inside it is a tremendous hindrance for law enforcement.”
Terrebonne Parish has recorded 14 homicides due to gunshot wounds for 2015 up to Dec. 10, according to Chief Coroner’s Investi-
gator Danny Theriot.
ARMED FELONS
The most recent local gunshot death occurred Friday, when 23-year-old Joshua Naverro, of Morgan City, succumbed to a wound he suffered to the head Thursday night on Jennings Lane in Houma. Calvin Demon Hollis, 26, of Jolie Oaks Boulevard in Thibodaux, faces one count of manslaughter. Hollis claimed that he was “playing” with a firearm that malfunctioned, causing Naverro to be struck by a bullet.
Whatever the circumstances, Hollis never should have had a gun to begin with, because he is a convicted felon.
Firearms in the hands of convicted felons figured into several murder cases related to internecine disputes between drug dealers. Authorities are confident that in almost all of those cases, shooters did not acquire their weapons from pawnshops or other legitimate sources.
Without hand-checking reports, Maj. Malcolm Wolfe of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office said, determining the number of firearms actually stolen in car or house burglaries is difficult. But anecdotally, he and other officials are aware that such thefts – whether here or in other locales – lead to more guns in the hands of more potential killers.
Terrebonne Parish Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate said that through 2014 and to date in 2015, 102 cases were received by his office for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; There were 41 cases received during the same period of illegal possession of stolen firearms.
Lt. Lonnie Lusco of HPD had headed up a program where officers checked car doors overnight, in an effort to stem auto burglaries. In many cases, according to Coleman, officers working the program found unsecured cars with firearms in them.
Sheriff Jerry Larpenter is keenly aware of what guns left in cars can lead to.
Other behaviors, he said, can also place gun owners at risk of victimization, and more people as well as police officers at risk of being killed or seriously hurt.
“People often show off with their guns and their children know where their guns are, or they are out and their children’s friends burglarize the house,” Larpenter said. “Guns get stolen out of houses, stolen out of camps. Even though you may have an old handgun, it’s a gun that can still be used in a homicide. Some people don’t respect their handguns and leave them in the car or leave the car unlocked.”
Larpenter branded such behavior as “reckless.”
GROWING UP
Law enforcement officials fear that as more people buy guns there will be more instances of people who legally own them not keeping them secure.
Larpenter said that even if a gun safe or trigger lock is not used, it is essential to keep a gun “in a hidden place,” where burglars or even authorized visitors won’t easily find them.
Laws that elevate forgetfulness or disregard for safety to a criminal offense could be passed at the state level. But local lawmakers either will not support such legislation, or even if they might support it see little to no chance of passage.
“It is reasonable to look at,” said State Rep.-elect Tanner Magee, R-Houma. “But that’s not likely unless the state’s sheriffs get behind it. The National Rifle Association has the political clout.”
Another newly minted legislator, State Rep.-elect Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, rejects the suggestion outright.
“It’s not going to solve the problem,” Amedee said. “People leave their cars unlocked with an unimaginable number and type of available and dangerous items in their cars. I would not want to propose legislation that polices where and when you may leave your car unlocked. People are just going to have to buck up and be responsible. We are way past the age of eight and so we should know better. There is someone who can police this and that’s the insurance industry, and when enough of your stuff gets stolen out of your unlocked car that they stop paying, maybe people will grow up.”
Sam Lusco and his son, Sammy, at their shop on Honduras Street where guns are sold. Sam Lusco says he advises customers he feels need training to do so, and hosts at his own expense classes at the store.
Guns and drugs seized in an October car stop in Terrebonne Parish resulting in the arrest of 25-year-old Hakeam Drane of Houma. Law enforcement officers say stolen guns figure heavily into drug-elated street violence.
