Suspects arrested in recent rash of shootings

Police commission seeks balance between fighting ‘quality of life’ and violent crime

By DON WILBURN

donaldfwilburn@gmail.com

Temperatures aren’t the only things rising in West Memphis as it would appear with it so is crime with a rash of recent shootings being reported around the area and also with that, arrests.

“It’s become so common” said one West Memphian, “some nights you just sit back and try to guess what type of guns they are firing.”

This sentiment was shared by a representative from the WMPD Special Response Team earlier this month in front of the City Council justifying the need for an MRAP armored vehicle when he played a video recorded on New Year’s Day of this year and said “It’s not what you are going to see, but it’s what you are going to hear. That is automatic gunfire going off in our city. We’re outgunned and we need protection.”

In a recent Police Commission meeting, where the focus once again turned to city ordinances and nuisances such as loud music, parked cars and basketball goals, Mose Walker, Commander of the Criminal Investigation Division for the WMPD, spoke of the delicate balance between what he referred to as “quality of life” crimes and those of a more violent and urgent nature.

“West Memphis has an extremely high call volume” Walker said, “when the calls come in you might have officers dealing with domestic incidents, car accidents, etc. When officers become available that is when we attend those other calls. In a perfect world we wish we could be right there, unfortunately that is just the nature of the beast. It’s constant. There is always something going on. If that’s what the people

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want, I don’t have a problem enforcing it, but it will tie up the courts [and resources].”

While the city ofWest Memphis is nearly fully staffed, Walker went on to address recruitment issues plaguing police departments nationwide adding “Nobody wants to do this job anymore. When you have a branch of civil service that is ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t’ do their jobs and there’s a ‘villianization’ of the police department even 1,000 miles away it will affect us here in West Memphis. There is a perfect storm that has come together to attack law enforcement. Nobody wants to be teacher anymore, a cop, nobody wants to do civil service. Violent crime is trending down, not up but recruiting and retaining is a constant back and forth battle of attrition. This is nationwide. No department is immune.”

Despite grumblings on social media from citizens that crime is up the of_cial record of arrests for violent crime proves otherwise. Some notable arrests involving recent shootings in West Memphis and other crimes include:

■ Micheal Dewayne Ames, 27, of Marion was taken into custody on May 14 and charged with kidnapping and rape. His bond was set at $20,000.

■ Haven Weatherspoon, 18, of West Memphis was arrested on May 5 and is being charged with attempted capitol murder, assault and unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle.

■ Justin Malik Watkins, 20, was arrested on May 13 and charged with eeing, battery in the _rst degree and unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle.

■ Keith Watkins, 38, of West Memphis was taken in custody last month on April 18 and is charged with attempted capitol murder, assault, domestic battery and _ring a weapon with intent to harm or kill. His bond was set at $100,000.

■ Keith Jackson, 20, of West Memphis was arrested on May 13 and was charged with eeing, _rst degree battery and unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle.

■ William Bernard Williams, 22, of West Memphis was arrested on May 13 and charged with _rst degree battery and unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle.

■ Mario Collins, 42, of West Memphis, arrested on May 14, has faces charges of violating his probation, second degree battery and conduct constituting a criminal conspiracy. His bond has been set at $535,000.

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