Police feared for the fate of 20-year-old Chancey Harper.
The young Birmingham man had already been shot, and he'd served time in prison for armed robbery. But police, city leaders and his family saw something in him and they worked, hard, to save him. Police Chief A.C. Roper, as part of the city's Violence Reduction Initiative, had even been to Harper's house at least twice in an effort to get him to turn his life around.
"Every homicide is tragic but this one hurt even more because Chancey and I talked face to face,'' said Roper, who met with Harper, his mother and his stepfather. "After visiting in the house, Chancey and I walked outside for a private conversation where he looked me in the eye and said, 'Chief, I'm going to change my life for you.' While standing in the yard, we hugged and took a picture together."
Despite his promise to the chief, and despite the interest Harper showed in the lifeline being tossed his way, in the end the streets won. He was gunned down Monday afternoon outside of the AutoZone, shot multiple times and left for dead on the pavement.
"It's unfortunate that no matter what we do to save young lives, we still have these situations,'' Birmingham Mayor William Bell said today. "We had gone to his house on several occasions. The police chief went and spoke with his grandmother to try to get him to come in. He refused to come in. We didn't give up on him. Last week, we tried. Unfortunately, we were not successful but we're not going to give up."
Harper was shot just before 4 p.m. Monday outside of the Huffman Road store. Police said an officer working an extra job nearby heard the gunfire and notified the dispatcher over the police radio at 3:52 p.m. The officer were heard on the radio yelling, 'Shots fired. Shots fired."
One witness said she was driving along Huffman Road when she heard the gunfire. She pulled her truck into the parking lot, and saw multiple young men running from the scene. Harper collapsed face down in the parking lot. "I hollered for someone to call an ambulance,'' she said. "I tried."
When police arrived on the scene, they found Harper dead from a gunshot wound to the mid-torso area. The shooting happened shortly after school let out for the day at nearby Huffman High School, and Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards there were kids, and people, everywhere. "It just shows the recklessness of the shooter, no care for life,'' Edwards said Monday. "Obviously whatever took place, whatever led that person to discharge a firearm recklessly like he did with a lot of students, a lot of people walking around, it just points to what type of individual we're dealing with, the individual we're looking for."
Harper is Birmingham's 65th homicide victim this year. Multiple witnesses have been interviewed, but no arrests have been announced.
Harper attended Huffman High School, last registered in the 2012-2013 school year but didn't appear to graduate. In June 2014, he pleaded guilty to two armed robberies from the previous year and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with three to serve, according to court records. Alabama Department of Corrections officials today said Harper was released from prison six months ago - on Feb. 23, 2016 - after serving two years, 11 months and 28 days of his three-year sentence.
Just two months after being released from prison, Harper was shot in the 2900 block of Gallant Drive. He told police he was standing outside at Valley Brook Apartments - the scene of multiple shootings in years' past - when a man approached him and shot him in the upper leg. That shooting happened at 12:04 a.m.
It was that shooting, in part, which alerted police to the need for intervention in Harper's life and they began to try to recruit him for the Violence Reduction Initiative. The effort was announced in Birmingham in June of 2015, a joint effort by the Birmingham police, the Mayor's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office and other community leaders.
The National Network for Safe Communities initiative works on the premise that readily identifiable groups of people commit the majority of homicides, shootings and other violent crimes. They don't call them gangs, because traditionally the term gang refers to organized groups of criminals with a specific money-making purpose. The loosely-organized street groups, experts say, often become the victims of the same violent crimes they carry out.
The program holds quarterly "call-ins," which are meetings with the young men identified as high-risk for homicide. Influential community members and social service workers talk directly with the young men about the need for the violence to stop in hopes they will take that message back to the rest of their group members. The message is simple: If you mess up, you are going to jail and so are your friends and associates. But if you don't, if you try to do better, all those law enforcement agencies will lend their power and authority to help you succeed and lead a better life.
In addition to the "call-ins," authorities offer a variety of services, and make home visits as they did in the case of Harper. "We went to meet with him because we were concerned about him being at risk for a homicide,'' said Jarralynee Agee, a VRI leader who is now the director of the mayor's Office of Violence Reduction. "We met with him and his mother and talked at length. We told him, 'We don't want you to be shot, we don't want your friends shot. If you feel in danger, call us. He was very impressed that the chief came to his house and he got to meet him."
They gave Harper a number to call, and Agee said he did use it, at least once, to speak with a counselor. She said he was receptive to the help being offered, but ultimately never fully got on board. "We lost contact with him a little bit ago,'' she said. "I talked to the mother as recently as a few weeks ago."
Agee, a mother of sons, said getting the news of Harper's death was hard. "When I got the call and they said his name, I said a prayer that it wasn't true,'' she said. "It's always bad, but when it's somebody you've seen and talked to their family, it's especially hard."
"I met him, I met his family and I cared about them,'' she said. "There's a sense of urgency in our city to save our sons."
Roper said they reached out to Harper because they were concerned about him and his lifestyle. "We offered him the full gamut of resources because the message and essence of the initiative is we want these young men alive, safe and out of prison,'' he said.
The unfortunate reality, Roper said, is this is the most at-risk population in our city. "Although the vast majority of these young men have not been involved in violence, it is inevitable that some will fall victim because research has repeatedly shown that victimization rates are impacted by social networks,'' he said. "In other words, friends and associates have major influence in homicide victimization rates."
"We do understand the effects of poverty, unemployment and other socioeconomic issues so we provide them a phone number which was set up especially for them where they can access social service resources 24 hours a day,'' he said. "We need young men like Chancey to see that we care about them and we're offering them a way out of the social conditions that have plagued their lives and decision making."