After four shootings in four days, Columbus city leaders enact immediate safety measures, including increased patrols and driver checkpoints

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – After four shootings in four days, Columbus leaders are taking what they say are immediate safety measures to end the violence.

One Columbus resident described the scene outside her home Monday night near the intersection of 7th Street and 5th Avenue South as a war zone.

Columbus Police says the Friendly City’s most recent incident was a drive-by on Dowdle Street Thursday that left a man dodging bullets sometime before 5 a.m.

Hours later, city officials held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to announce their plan of action.

“We are very concerned about crime in the city of Columbus and the recent shootings,” Mayor Robert Smith said, to begin the event.

Mayor Smith and Police Chief Fred Shelton said that as of Thursday, they will be increasing night patrols in the areas where the crime has been most intense, staging driver’s license and safety checkpoints and install 12 new surveillance cameras that have already been purchased.

“Instead of nine people, you got 13 people you got to be worried about,” Cheif Shelton said, elaborating on the patrol increase. “So (we’re) having these officers out in these areas where we’re experiencing these high crimes and being more visible.”

CPD officers set up the first of the new safety checkpoints Thursday afternoon.

“If we have a person of interest or a suspect in one of these crimes, or a warrant on them, certainly we’re going to take that opportunity from the license sobriety checkpoint to actually arrest them,” Chief Shelton said.

The checkpoint did create a line of cars that stretched up parts of 20th Street and 14th Avenue. However, Columbus resident Floyd Lash says he only waited in line for 2 to 3 minutes and is grateful for the increased police activity.

“I don’t do nothing but go to work and home so I stay out of the way of the shooting carrying on,” he said. “Eventually, they’ll solve who’s doing all the shooting and put an end to it.”

Thursday morning’s press conference was the first public appearance by Mayor Smith since he was hospitalized in February.

“When issues like this occur, I need to be out front,” he said. “I need to let the citizens know that, even though I’ve been ill…I’m just happy and elated to be back here to deal with this situation and hope that we can get it under control.”

Police say they have persons of interest in all of this week’s shootings and are working to develop suspects.

Chief Shelton and the mayor said they are also developing more long-term measures like increased information sharing among all law enforcement agencies in the Golden Triangle.

The chief says they first want to hear from the public at a town hall meeting at the Trotter Convention Center Monday at 6 p.m. so that they can potentially incorporate other citizen concerns into their strategy.