3 STABBINGS, 2 SHOOTINGS – NO ARRESTS!

GET IN THE RING,
MAYOR GRAY!

     This is getting ridiculous. The Mayor needs to grow some balls and declare war on crime in Downtown. There is no bringing Lancaster back unless you bring downtown back and make it a destination. How many more businesses have to fail? How many more people have to die in parking garages or on city streets? Seriously. Get in the ring, Mayor Rick. Get in the ring.
Posted on Lancaster Online under the July 27th story, “Lancaster man critically wounded in stabbing,” (click here).
     Remember this story? It happened on the same morning Police Chief Keith Sadler, District Attorney Craig Stedman, Assistant District Attorney Chris Larsen and city police Lt. Jarrad Berkihiser held a press conference and put on a dog and pony show to announce they had solved a murder and arrested the victim’s roommate.
     Berkihiser, in the video below the story, talks about the stabbing and is asked by a reporter if anyone has been arrested. He says, “Again,” and he gives a slight laugh, “we have detectives working tirelessly to find out information about this new case.”
     You guessed it. All that “tireless” work has resulted in no one being arrested. Berkihiser is quoted in the story as follows:
     Olmeda-Rivera was “somewhat uncooperative” with police, the officer said, but they did not know if that was his intention or if his injuries were affecting how he was responding to them.
     On September 25th, I ran these two items hidden in the police log (click here) and asked if they would be solved:
LANCASTER: Police responded to Lancaster General Hospital for a stabbing victim at 6:25 p.m. Sunday, city police said. A 41-year-old woman had a facial laceration. She was not fully cooperative with police, saying only that the incident occurred in a building down the block from the Turkey Hill a few blocks from the hospital.
LANCASTER: Police responded to LGH for a stabbing victim at 2:50 a.m. Sunday, city police said. A 25-year-old man was being treated for a wound to the right side of his chest that was not life-threatening. He was vague with details and mostly uncooperative, police said. He said he was talking to a female on King Street near McDonald’s when an unknown man either shot or stabbed him.
     No, there have been no arrests! All these uncooperative victims! The poor police!
     And the Lancaster Newspapers finally got Friday’s shooting that was mentioned in my morning post up and it turns out two men were shot (click here for, “2 people wounded in shooting Saturday in city”).
     From the article, there is this:
     Umstead [Police Spokesperson Lt. Todd Umstead] did not know if the man shot in the leg had been released from the hospital, he said. His wound was not life-threatening.
     The man shot in the foot was released from the hospital, Umstead said.
      Police do not know if he is connected to either of the other two men, or just happened to be in the area, he said.
      Both victims did not fully cooperate with police.
      Police did not have any information about a suspect on Monday.
    Three stabbings and two shootings and no one has been arrested. The police claim all of the victims were “not cooperative” or “not fully cooperative.”  In Friday’s shooting case, they state two days later they still don’t know if one of the men who was shot knew either of the other two men (one having to be the shooter). What terrible police work and an easy and ridiculous “excuse” not to solve very serious crimes.
     This is dreadful police work and it leaves the public at risk over and over again. If the victims truly were “not cooperative,” then the police have a serious community relations problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
     Three stabbing victims and two shooting victims and all the police can say is they were “uncooperative?” This is an outrage! Mayor Gray, do something about this incompetent and uncaring police force – now!
There will be more tomorrow.