Juvenile Gun Violence

pistols

The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department is looking for our help regarding an incident that occurred in the early hours of December 26th, 2022. TAPD Officers responded to a call regarding “shots being fired.” Officers discovered over sixty spent casings in the street. “Anyone with any information about these incidents or any other incidents involving violence and juveniles, please contact Detective Corvette Phillips at (903) 798-3154 with the department’s criminal investigation division or email: Corvette.Phillips@txkusa.org.”  

TAPD Press Release
A community is only whole when it lives together, works together, and overcomes obstacles together. The Texarkana Arkansas Police Department wants our community to feel safe and be free from violence in our streets. The last few years, the communities on both sides of our state line have suffered loss to gun violence and senseless rivalries that have torn our city apart and taken young lives.

“It takes a village to raise a child” is an African proverb that means an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to grow in a safe and healthy environment.

We need help from our community. In the past year, juvenile crime has become increasingly violent, with shootings on both sides of the state line to the other and back and forth. Information that law enforcement has received indicates some of the recent shooting situations, where more than sixty rounds have been fired from handguns and rifles at homes and vehicles, were done by juveniles. No arrests have been made so far because none of the suspects have been identified.

On 12/26/2022 at 140 a.m., night shift officers responded to Vernal and Hayes Streets because of shots being fired and they discovered over sixty spent shell casings in the street when they arrived. No one was injured in the gunfire. This is one incident currently under investigation by the police department.

Why are these incidents happening on our streets and why are these juvenile offenders driving around with these guns? Do the parents know about the weapons and where these kids are at 1:40 a.m.? How can we stop this violence before another person seriously hurt or killed due to this senseless action?

The police department is asking for your help in identifying any offenders in these violent acts and the location of any weapons that could be involved in these acts. Anyone with any information about these incidents or any other incidents involving violence and juveniles please contact Det. Corvette Phillips at (903) 798-3154 with the department’s criminal investigation division or email: Corvette.Phillips@txkusa.org