By JULIUS WHIGHAM II
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:51 p.m. Saturday, June 5, 2010
Posted: 10:41 p.m. Saturday, June 5, 2010
A Wellington man allegedly shoots and kills his wife and two sons. A Delray Beach teen allegedly stabs her mother's boyfriend to death in a parking lot, then goes to school. Three convenience store clerks are killed in a pair of robberies less than two weeks apart.
Those are some of the homicide cases that have garnered attention in a year that - after last week's gunning down of a 17-year-old girl at a suburban West Palm Beach nightclub - appears to be outpacing 2009's total of 95 homicides.
Through Friday, there were 40 homicides in Palm Beach County - two more than the same period a year ago - according to statistics from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office.
But while local law enforcement agencies continue their struggle to reduce violence, there have been some positive developments, investigators say.
The 2009 totals marked the first time that Palm Beach County finished with fewer than 100 homicides since 2005, when there were 79. A stepped-up effort by local authorities to target gang-related violence has helped reduce the numbers to some degree, said sheriff's Lt. Michael Wallace of the Palm Beach County gang task force.
Over a four-year period, gang-related homicides dropped 50 percent, Wallace said. In 2006, 48 of 102 homicides were gang-related. Last year, he said, that total fell to 24.
This year, nine of the county's homicides have been gang-related, according to sheriff's office statistics.
"It's something that Sheriff (Ric) Bradshaw looked at years ago when we first started the violent crime task force," Wallace said, adding that morphing into the gang task force allowed the agency to attack what was then the cause of the problem - gangs.
"We look at 2008, when we had a 110 (homicides), to last year, when we had 95," he said. "Fifteen less homicides; that's a significant number. I would attribute most of that to … combating gangs."
Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe said prosecutors and police agencies have been aggressively targeting gangs, but cautioned against reading too much into the totals.
"Homicide rates, like other types of violent crime, (are) cyclical," he said. "What we do as the state attorney, as the sheriff, and as police chiefs and other law enforcement agencies, is we make sure we're getting the resources where they need to be. … From my perspective, I think all of those things are happening."
Recent robbery deaths a concern
But now there have been concerns in other areas, investigators said - including a pair of robberies that resulted in the deaths of three convenience store clerks in April.
On April 19, Ali Kassem Ballout, 58, of Belle Glade was shot and killed during a robbery at the Quick Service Store in Belle Glade. Two weeks later, on the night of April 30, two store clerks - Ralston Muller, 39, and Michael Bennett, 48 - were shot and killed at a Greenacres Circle K store after they had offered no resistance to the robbers.
"The robberies are a focus right now," said Lt. Jeff Andrews of the sheriff's homicide unit. "To have two cases in one month for us to investigate (is a concern) … when they result in homicides of the store clerks who are just trying to earn a living out there."
West Palm Beach police said their investigations this year have all involved shooting victims - most of whom were younger adults.
Its most recent case, for example, was the killing of student and father Kevin D. Arnold, 31, in the 600 block of 39th Street. Arnold was shot in his home early Thursday .
"It's just the blatant disregard for human life (that's troubling)," West Palm Beach Detective Adam Myers said.
Sour economy fuels domestic incidents
There also have been a number of instances that were domestic-related, according to agency statistics.
In January, Neal Jacobson of Wellington was charged with shooting and killing his wife and the couple's twin 7-year-old sons. The same month, a 26-year-old suburban West Palm Beach woman, Monette Dubuisson, was shot and killed by her estranged husband, Gary Jean Pierre, who then turned the gun on himself .
Prosecutors and investigators said a number of factors can contribute to the straining of relationships, including economic concerns.
"I think that, while overall violent crime may be decreasing, it's often in times of economic uncertainty and recessionary times, that these are stress factors and you can see that in domestic violence," McAuliffe said. "It tends to pick up in those periods."
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