Violent crime in Savannah leads NAACP Chapter meeting discussion

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Sunday, local enforcement gave several updates to community members about the state of public safety.

Among them, Savannah’s police chief, Chatham County’s police chief, and the school district police chief.

WTOC was at the NAACP meeting where leaders spoke about crimes involving juveniles, and building community trust.

Public safety and crime were the top two subjects at this month’s Chatham County NAACP meeting.

Chatham County Police Chief Jeffrey Hadley, Savannah Police Chief Lenny Gunther and Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools Police Chief Terry Enioch, all shared updates Sunday evening.

“Overall all crimes is up by 2% for violent crimes,” said Chief Gunther.

Chief Gunther said that rise is driven by domestic crimes, many involving strangulation.

“We take a hard stance with domestics. We take a hard look at repeat offenders and we also focus on repeat victims, people that are subject to these crimes over and over and over again,” said Chief Gunther.

Gunther also highlighted crimes involving youth.

“Our last two homicides involved juveniles,” said Chief Gunther.

The first one on Thursday killed a 17-year-old and the second one Friday that killed a 16-year-old.

SEE: Savannah Police investigating deadly shooting involving juvenile on Pennsylvania Ave.

SEE: Young boy killed in Friday night shooting on La Roche Ave.

“Anytime you have a shooting or a homicide, that’s one too many. But when you break out and our juveniles are being killed, when they’re being shot, that resonates with everyone,” said Chief Gunther.

Both Chief Gunther and Chief Hadley put an emphasis on stolen weapons from unlocked vehicles.

“We get busy. We pull in the driveway, we got groceries, got our cell phone in our hand and we may forget to lock our vehicle,” said Chief Hadley.

These meetings serve as public forums for attendees to also ask their questions.

One exchange in particular, got heated from the audience.

“Get on the ground, get on the ground or I’ll shoot you in your head. How would you respond? So what are we really teaching our officers,” asked community advocate Malik Brown.

Jones said he came to get answers from law enforcement about a recent video circulating online, raising questioning about the police department’s use of force.

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When asked for a response- Gunther did not respond to that concern.

He told attendees that while he could not go into detail about the investigation as its still ongoing, and that he has a priority to build community trust in his department.