Our View
Way past time to get tough on repeat offenders
Here we are, just a month and a half into 2020 and we learn West Memphis police have arrested, for the second time mind you, a murder suspect, charged in the Feb. 1 shooting of another man while attending a family gathering following a funeral earlier that day.
As in case after case involving major crime in West Memphis, police officers find themselves re-arresting the same criminal suspects who have been released from jail due to an inability on the part of state prosecutors to try their cases in court in a timely manner.
In this particular case, 34-year-old Freddie Atkins of West Memphis, was roaming the streets on what is called a pre-trial release on federal drug charges at the time of the Feb. 1, Saturday night murder of Quindarius Wright while sitting in the back seat of a Cadillac parked at 1105 Ferguson.
When police responded to the report of shots fired they found Wright bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound.
He was immediately transported to Regional One in Memphis where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives immediately interviewed witnesses and within days gathered enough evidence to obtain a federal warrant from the U.S. Marshal Service and make the arrest.
It was just last month that WMPD detectives stopped a vehicle on Broadway that just happened to be occupied by the man who has been charged with the April 28, 2018 killing of a Forrest City policeman while he was inside his South Avalon apartment during a shooting spree.
Demarcus Parker, of West Memphis was free on bail at the time of his arrest by detectives on charges of marijuana possession and a loaded black Sig Sauer P229 semi-automatic pistol.
Let’s remember, Parker was the prime suspect in the death of 25-year-old Forrest City Police Officer Oliver Johnson at the Meadows apartments on South Avalon. Johnson was struck by one of the rounds from the gunfire that riddled the ground floor apartment, according to Assistant Police Chief Robert Langston. Langston said Johnson was a victim in what was then a gang-related incident.
These are just two of many instances where law enforcement officers respond to felony crimes only to learn the suspects involved are convicted felons as well as some free on bail pending trial.
Last year we reported the frustration law enforcement officers are dealing with in regard to the number of those they arrest on felony charges only to re-arrest them on other felony charges while they are roaming the streets free on bond awaiting prosecution.
There are also instances where felony cases have been completely dropped due to state prosecutors failure to bring them to trial within a specific time period meaning that, in some cases, these individuals are out committing other criminal acts such as those we have mentioned just in the month and a half of this year.
Recently retired Second Judicial District Judge John Fogleman recently addressed the situation when he appeared before Crittenden County Quorum Court justices during his farewell address by encouraging them to invest in additional courtroom facilities and the need to support additional prosecutors so that the serious backlog of criminal cases can be eliminated.
Until this judicial bottleneck is seriously addressed we’re afraid the frustrations our law enforcement officers are coping with will continue as well as the continued concerns over public safety in our county.
