The Associated Press
CALDWELL, Idaho (AP) - Prosecutor Dave Young is assembling members of Canyon County’s new Public Safety League, which will combat gang violence.
While he has not identified any steering committee members yet, Young said a judge and an educator have agreed to serve and contacts are being made with others who attended the mid-October community meeting sparked by the second drive-by murder this year.
“We’re in the process,” said Young, who expects the league to merge community activism with law enforcement initiatives to identify those behind the surge of gun violence and get them off the street.
The county has had nearly 200 reports of shootings since July, over half in Caldwell, a farm community of 31,000 about 25 miles west of Boise. The city’s west side, where calls to police have been the highest, is marked by deteriorating homes and abandoned vehicles, declining property values and falling homeownership rates. Many officials, including the newly elected sheriff, believe drugs are at the heart of the shootings.
Investigators say many have been gang related, and two alleged gang members face first-degree murder charges in the Oct. 11 drive-by killing of Sigmund Goode, 21, in Caldwell, the event that sparked the community response. No arrests have been made in the gang-related August slaying of 22-year-old Carlos Chavez.
A 16-year-old was arrested earlier this week and charged with the weekend shooting of a 14-year-old boy, who is recovering from a wound to the back. Police said the victim knew gang members but was not believed to belong to a gang himself.
The outbreak of violence has brought national attention to the community and raised neighborhood fears about safety. Neighborhood watches have spring up throughout the county in areas where local organization had never occurred before.
Caldwell officials have also applied for federal financial assistance to underwrite more resources to fight gang activity and create alternatives for young people to gang involvement.