This months, the deaths of Michele Burton and Girlie Weight have shocked and saddened their families and friends.
At a county level, I’m fairly certain Kitsap hasn’t been home to two homicides in one month since November 2005.
The last three homicides — the two above plus Jeffrey McKinstry last October — were stabbing deaths.
That’s unusual in and of itself. Around the state in 2006 (the last crime statistics released by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs), gun deaths from homicides outnumbered stabbing deaths by more than 3 to 1.
In the latest alleged homicide, the location bears significance.
That block of Montgomery Avenue was near the site of an alleged
shooting of a Bremerton woman in October. Darrin Maiden remains in
custody awaiting trial in that shooting on
first-degree assault charges.
Ultimately, criminologists can attempt to predict patterns in crime based on past activity. But the recent tragedies just go to show sometimes history can’t predict how the worst violence will surface.
However, you have to feel for the residents of Montgomery, who have seen their street in the paper for the wrong reasons twice now.
Years ago montgomery avenue was the scene of another tragedy. In the early 1990’s two young men were gunned down in an attempted cocaine robbery between red and blue gang members. This was in the 200 block, an area that was later demolished for the building of the large parking garage.
The killers were caught and were “brought to justice”. There were many beautifully old homes of the WWII era, it’s just too bad that they were let to run down, and the neighborhood followed suit. But for some reason that street has some bad MOJO? I wonder if it was tribal or sacred land once upon a time?