Every year for 26 years, the organization Families Advocating Safe Streets (FASS) has hosted a candlelight service commemorating the year’s victims of murder in St. Louis. On New Year’s Eve 2017, with a homicide toll in St. Louis city and county that surpassed 200 for the year, the pain of those losses was especially sharp, as were the calls for change.
The service at Williams Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC) was hosted by COGIC bishop Lawrence Wooten and attended by St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards and newly appointed Police Chief John Hayden, who received a warm reception from those in attendance. Many of the others assembled were family members of homicide victims.
Krewson addressed the family members with an empathetic, apolitical message.
“I know that you are in a lot of pain, today and every day, and I know how difficult that is,” Krewson said. “I just want to say to you that you are in my thought and in my prayers, and I know everyone else’s here. Hang on to those good memories that you have so that you can get through today, and tomorrow, and the next day.”
In 1995, Krewson lost her husband Jeff Krewson to gun violence in front of their home in the Central West End.
Community leaders, including Krewson, read the names of more than 200 recorded victims of murders in 2017. The vast majority of those killed were black men, mostly in incidents of gun violence.
As the names were read, the mothers of victims were invited to the front of the church. Lit by candles held up by observers, the mothers stood, many of them with photos of their sons, shoulder to shoulder.
Hayden, whose appointment as police chief was announced just three days before the service, offered a strong message about what St. Louisans could expect during his tenure – a safer city with lower homicide rates.
“We know where a lot of violence happens,” Hayden said. “We’ve pinpointed that. We’re going to be putting all types of resources up there. We’re going to curb violence in this city. That is the least I can do for you.”
Hayden was followed by St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, who spoke about the 56 murders in his jurisdiction, the most recent committed earlier that same day. The range of victims, he said, spanned from age nine to age 80.
“I say this every year, but their lives were stolen,” Belmar said. “They were stolen from them and they were stolen from us, and they deserve no less than to be remembered. They deserve no less than for us to work together to ensure no additional names are added to this room.”
Lewis Reed, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, spoke about the murder of his own brother, saying the most important thing family members could do was hold onto their positive memories of their loved ones. He also said part of the solution to violence in St. Louis would be less vacant buildings, greater police presence and more jobs.
Comptroller Darlene Green called on politicians to put their differences aside and focus on better allocating the city’s resources. She directed that message of willingness to work together specifically at Reed, a sometime political foe.
“We can come together and work together,” Green said. “We’ve got to put this politics aside, we’ve got to do the right things about curing this evil that is lurking around and causing these young people to kill.”
Green’s message received hearty applause from the mostly black crowd in attendance.
Some speakers at the event offered another solution to the problem of homicides, and in particular unsolved homicides. They called on members of the black community to come forward with information they knew about crimes and talk to police officers.
Jimmie Edwards, the new Public Safety director who spent many years as a circuit court judge, said he had overseen many murder trials and there was a consistent theme.
“Witnesses never showed up,” Edwards said. “They never showed up to my courtroom to help prosecute those that needed to be prosecuted. So we have to resolve today that we’re going to be brave. When things happen in our communities, we’re going to call the police, and we’re going to participate, and we’re going to come to the courtroom. That takes some bravery.”
Edwards said no matter the quality of the police department, it cannot effectively do its job without cooperation from the public.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, 74 of the homicide cases opened in 2017 have been closed, while 129 are still open. According to statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, St. Louis’ homicide clearance rate (that is, its rate of referring a murder suspect for prosecution) over the past 10 years is 53 percent.
