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"What a tragic waste of human potential."

I hear what you're saying, but I'm wondering how things might be different if we started looking at EVERY murder victim -- and EVERY convicted killer -- that way, too. (Prison also ends potential.) Would we, as a community, do something different to at least try to stop the violence?

I think so. Is there a greater role for the faith community here?

When some one does a heartless crime like killing someone, i feel like there is no more potential , this person took another mans life no more chances. And it does'nt matter what the community do it starts at home first.

Homicide is modern-day dueling. The code of honor says even the smallest insult requires an absolute response. Until that ignorance is dealt with, there'll be gunshots in the night and bodies in the morning.
What it will take to correct that is a bend in popular culture that deglorifies the gangster and elevates the peacemaker: someone cool to cure the fool.

How about our new president? Isn't he a better example? Anyone paying attention?

Doug, yes there IS a role for the faith community. Churches should be taking the lead in responding to the violence. I'm going to write about this. Thanks for the prompting.

West End Ministries in High Point may provide a model. Working with police and community service organizations, it has helped reduce violence.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

Why, Dennis was my lil cousin, i was in his life ever since he was born, & i will be there in death. My cuz. did not deserve to die, My family will have justice, enough said.

I hope that means any information leading to a suspect will be passed to police, an arrest can be made and the courts can do their job.

Dennis was a criminal-justice major. Isn't that how he'd want this to be handled?

You are absoultely right,I am Kendra's roommate the girl who made the comment about "it happens all the time". There is no guarantee that Campus Courtyard or pickering co will provide us with the proper security we need even though they said that they would as a benefit to live here. Also student leases doesn't end until July 31st so students have no other choice but to stay in the same apartment building where the shootings is happening at. Unless we pay a fee to break the lease which is $500 or above. Thats alot of money since school just started and students had to pay for books, tuition etc. So on behave of myself and other students who live in 805 Homeland Avenue thanks for your empathy Greensboro.

Thanks for your comments. This must be very frightening. Stay safe.

Condolences to the family.
Unfortunately the majority of crimes in Greensboro are committed by black males. This one will be no different.
I would like to know why our black "leaders " rarely, if ever, even acknowledge or mention the fact that one of their own is creating havoc for society.
T. Diane Bellamy, Skip Alston, etc have no problem speaking their mind on anything that pops into their heads, but on an issue as serious as this you will never hear them say anything.
I cannot take seriously anything Goldie Wells or any of them have to say when so many members of the black community are robbing and killing people every single day.
These are barbaric acts that are completely unacceptable in a civilized society and you would think that these leaders would be shaming their own people into behaving like they were civilized.
But they don't.
And they won't.
They'll just continuing wondering out loud why the rest of the city, country and world has a problem with them.

Condolences to the family.
Unfortunately the majority of crimes in Greensboro are committed by black males. This one will be no different.
I would like to know why our black "leaders " rarely, if ever, even acknowledge or mention the fact that one of their own is creating havoc for society.
T. Diane Bellamy, Skip Alston, etc have no problem speaking their mind on anything that pops into their heads, but on an issue as serious as this you will never hear them say anything.
I cannot take seriously anything Goldie Wells or any of them have to say when so many members of the black community are robbing and killing people every single day.
These are barbaric acts that are completely unacceptable in a civilized society and you would think that these leaders would be shaming their own people into behaving like they were civilized.
But they don't.
And they won't.
They'll just continuing wondering out loud why the rest of the city, country and world has a problem with them.

The older I get, the more I think we're all wrong with this racial grouping stuff.

The achievement gap at school is really the gap between what Child A is learning and what he or she ought to be learning. What's race got to do with it?

Why look at crime differently? Someone commits a violent crime. That's a problem for everyone. I don't have a greater personal responsibility for a white person who commits a crime than I do for a black person who commits a crime. The issue is the harm done to all of us. We all need to address it.

More Than 40,000 U.S. Workers Lost Their Jobs Today…

You can be assured that rap gang shooting will be nothing as compare to the massive shooting by millions of unemployed Americans to come.

Good for you Doug.
I completely disagree.

Although this group of people is perhaps the most politically sensitive group in the country, the fact is they are at the bottom of every measurement people would like to be at the top of, and they are at the top of every measurement groups of people would prefer to be at the bottom of.

There might be more sympathy for them if people felt they were collectively making a serious effort to change the problems they have with crime, education, family structure but that's my point, they're not.
When was the last time (or the first time...) you heard Skip Alston or Dianne Bellamy, etc say something like "we've got to change our own ways folks"?
A walk against violence here, a prayer for the local youth there - no worthwhile or sustained group effort to make positive changes.
Ask Bill Cosby.

I do not believe that the complex should be to blame for this tragic act. You hear in the news all the time that there are violent crimes happening all over this city including other apartment complexes. Where are the police when things like this happen? Why does it take someone getting killed for the media to address the crime issue that we are faced with in Greensboro as a whole? And anyone who hears gunshots should report that....Someone could have been getting shot each and every time that those shots were heard and because no one called someone could have been dying.

Doug asked, "What's it going to take the prevent the next shooting?"

Where were you and the rest of the N&R in '97 when I ran for mayor on an anti-crime, anti-gang platform? Where were you when I said we needed to double the size of GPD? You were bought and paid for by the status-quo and did nothing. You had the power to change Greensboro for the better simply by printing the truth but you chose to hide the truth.

In Jan-July 97 I was ranting and raving about gangs in Greensbpro but the N&R denied gangs were a problem. Liars!

There's blood on your hands, Doug! Blood on John Robinson's hands! Blood on Allen Johnson's hands! Blood on your hands and the entire management/editorial staff of the N&R.

And now you have the audacy to cry, "What's it going to take the prevent the next shooting?"

I recall that Yvonne Johnson ran on an anti-crime platform and is doing so again.

If not supporting Billy Jones for mayor means you have bloody hands, well, I guess that's just about everybody.

I agree partially with Billy. I am not in politics so I do not recall the election. However there have been several incidents at other A&T off campus apartments and nothing in the paper. As a matter of fact the shooting that happened the week prior to this incident never even made the paper. If more media was shown of how violent our communities are getting, especially in and around the college campuses, it would get some attention. Something needs to change and it does not start with apartment owners. They are in business...How does it help business for them to turn a blind eye? What positive comes out of them being in the media? What are our tax dollars for? No protection from the police? Somone seems to be hiding the truth about how out of control things are getting.

News this morning in your paper is the same as every morning Doug.

3 businesses robbed yesterday.

Credit Union: SUSPECT BLACK MALE
Credit Union: SUSPECT BLACK MALE
Pharmacy: SUSPECT BLACK MALE

I happen to agree that more crime coverage would be helpful. I don't believe in racial categorization, whether you're talking about crime, government contracts, academic achievement, how many minorities coach football teams, who ought to be appointed to a public office, how legislative districts ought to be drawn, etc. and etc. All that gets us nowhere.

By the way, Billy, I have no recollection of your campaign for mayor in 1997. I do remember that you declared yourself a write-in candidate in 2007. I suggest, if you are serious about running for office, you must file along with the other candidates and get on the ballot. I would encourage you to do that this year. I am not inclined to give equal consideration to a "candidate" who doesn't take the initiative to file for the office.

Doug, let's be honest; Yvonne appears to be running on the Keep-Mitch Johnson-At-Any-Cost-Forever-No -Matter-If-He-Is-Running-the City-Into-The-Ground-Because-He-Supported-Black People-Over-Their-White-Oppressors-In-The-Past platform. Everything else is a distant secondary concern and if crime goes up or crime goes down, eh...

Yvonne Johnson never mentioned crime and gangs until I brought it up. (I attended as many of her speeches and debates as you did, perhaps more. And you still denied Greensboro had a gang problem all the way up until the gang bangers were in your faces.

You took the info passed along to you bt City PR and spread it as if it were gospel without ever investigating anything. Then when you could no longer deny the problem you allowed Joe to go talk with the gangs and do his little piece of "investigative journalism" to expose what Greensboro's poor had known for years.

You're bought and paid for Doug, and that is why your paper is going out of business and you will soon find yourself out of a job.

Newspapers are supposed to be a voice for the people but the N&R is only a voice for the City's PR department.

Billy, why don't you show one example of when we denied there's a gang problem in Greensboro?

Why don't you provide some evidence that I'm bought and paid for? If I took you seriously, I'd consider that a libelous statement. But I don't.

We are not going out of business. We'll be around for a long time.

I'm no fan of the current city administration. Or the N&R's administration, for that matter. But I fail to see how either is to blame for this tragedy.

Violent crime in America's cities is hardly a new problem. And it's hardly limited to Greensboro. Certainly, more needs to be done, but much of what needs to happen is a societal change - people need to reject the culture of guns and violence.

I don't know much about the specifics of this case, but I don't see how the police are to blame. It's not as if the cops can be everywhere.

Billy:

I'm not sure who at the N&R was denying there was a gang problem.

It's been about a year since I was a cop reporter -- but when I was I wrote a number of stories on the problem from just about every angle, including going into potentially dangerous situations to talk with gang members and the people who live in the neighborhoods most effected by them.

No editor at the paper did anything but encourage that.

There are certainly arguments to be made about holes in our coverage - some of it stemming from the fact that our staff keeps shrinking but the news doesn't stop. But one thing we're not short on is stories about people shooting each other and robbing things.

Billy:

I'm not sure who at the N&R was denying there was a gang problem.

It's been about a year since I was a cop reporter -- but when I was I wrote a number of stories on the problem from just about every angle, including going into potentially dangerous situations to talk with gang members and the people who live in the neighborhoods most effected by them.

No editor at the paper did anything but encourage that.

There are certainly arguments to be made about holes in our coverage - some of it stemming from the fact that our staff keeps shrinking but the news doesn't stop. But one thing we're not short on is stories about people shooting each other and robbing things.

The ONLY news that I have noticed coming from this site is, reporting someone with a Black Handgun had robbed a store. I read this in 3 or 4 different stories. No description of the perp. Just the Dreaded Black Handgun (one of those handguns may have had a Mustache or something)..LOL......I about fell off of my chair laughing. Frankly I am really shocked that the citizens of Greensboro have allowed this to happen to their city...Gangsboro.

Quite frankly, I don't know WHY they would put new student housing in such a crime infested area. Crimes are committed frequently at the Riverwalk apartments across from where Dennis lived. By putting up new apartments, you're just inviting more crime. If new apartment are going to be built in a crime infested area, it is the property management's RESPONSIBILITY to provide security. If you look around the perimeters of A&T's campus, you'll see that most off-campus housing is located in areas where crime occurs often, bums are hanging around on the street, etc.

Thanks for writing, Anonymous.

The university should have enough clout to pressure property managers and the city to step up security/police protection. Student safety is not an issue that can be ignored.

Doug,

I do believe that in this article alone it was mentioned that the Property Management did have security. Unfortunately it would be impossible to protect every person and you should know that. What the school needs to do is assist the property managers in doing patrols and keeping their students in line. There are students all the time being reported to the university that are not punished or kicked out of school. Drug dealers and gang members should not be allowed to go to such a well respected school which is also my school. And don't get me started on GPD. Do you know how many times they are called and do not respond? Look at the news press that they are putting out...We will begin responding to every call reporting gun fire...What were they doing before? Don't we pay taxes for them to help the citizens?

Doug,

I do believe that in this article alone it was mentioned that the Property Management did have security. Unfortunately it would be impossible to protect every person and you should know that. What the school needs to do is assist the property managers in doing patrols and keeping their students in line. There are students all the time being reported to the university that are not punished or kicked out of school. Drug dealers and gang members should not be allowed to go to such a well respected school which is also my school. And don't get me started on GPD. Do you know how many times they are called and do not respond? Look at the news press that they are putting out...We will begin responding to every call reporting gun fire...What were they doing before? Don't we pay taxes for them to help the citizens?

I was surprised to hear they don't respond to all calls about gunshots. I live in High Point. A year or two ago, somebody down the street fired a few rounds in his backyard. There were 10 cops on the scene within about five minutes. I know because I counted them. That many weren't needed, but if police don't respond, the gunslingers will keep shooting.

In regards to the comments up above, it is not just "their problem." It is everyone's problem. United we stand and together we fall. If you are foolish enough to believe that the crime would decrease if black leaders stood up and told 'their' communities to straighten up, it is no wonder that there is ongoing violent crime in Greensboro. The detriment these crimes are creating stem from everyone's apathy and ignorance, certainly not just from members of the communities where it is taking place.