By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph police say they have seen a rash of crimes in the city perpetrated by juveniles.
Juveniles have been taken into custody recently for a fatal stabbing in late May and a shooting earlier this month. A juvenile also was among three people taken into custody, accused in an armed home invasion.
St. Joseph Police Captain Jeff Wilson expresses concern about the trend.
“It’s not just St. Joe,” Wilson tells reporters during a recent news conference. “This is a nation-wide trend, but we need to bring attention to it and see what we can do to try to mitigate this and hopefully turn these juveniles around, help them turn the corner and make them understand that this is not the right path to choose.”
A 17-year-old has been taken into custody in the stabbing death of 46-year-old Cory Amen of St. Joseph. The fatal stabbing occurred on May 28th in the 3000 block of Lafayette Street. Wilson says investigators had the juvenile as their prime suspect for some time, but waited until they compiled more evidence before taking him into custody.
A 16-year-old is accused in the early morning shooting on August 6th outside the Oak Ridge Apartments that left a 27-year-old critically wounded. The victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds that required reconstructive surgery. He is hospitalized outside St. Joseph and is expected to recover. Police have declined to release the victim’s identity.
Also, a 16-year-old is accused, along with two 19-year-olds, of a home invasion on Mitchell Avenue in early August in which the three brandished guns while robbing the home owner.
Wilson says the residents weren’t harmed in that incident.
“Fortunately, no. They weren’t hurt,” Wilson says “They did experience, again, firearms being put in their faces and demands being made of them, but they were not hurt.”
Wilson says there is a dangerous commonality in the crimes.
“The commonality is that they’re violent,” Wilson states. “They are violent crimes.”
St. Joseph Police Captain Jeff Wilson says the rise in juvenile crime is troubling.
“We’re talking of a span, and there’s multiple other crimes that we’re investigating at this point in time. I’ll tell you we’re talking of a span from the 28th of May and the last crime that we’re talking about occurred on the 13th of this month,” Wilson says. “That’s a short time frame for this many juveniles to be arrested and again I’ll tell you that we’re investigating other cases that involve juveniles.”
Wilson says the St. Joseph Police Department is reaching out to agencies and the St. Joseph School District to get at the root of juvenile crime and to steer young people away from crime.