At meeting on Winston-Salem shootings, local business owners cite lack of police presence. In response, sheriff offers assistance
Colbert Seagraves (center), owner of Gatsby's Pub, listens as city leaders respond to a question during the meeting with downtown stakeholders Thursday. He says his employees are frightened and don't want to come to work. PAUL GARBER/WFDD
Downtown Winston-Salem business owners and workers expressed fears and frustrations to city leaders Thursday about the lack of police in the area during a special meeting called to address violent crime including two deaths.
Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership President Jason Theil opened the meeting with a recognition of the two people who lost their lives in shootings on Burke Street this year, Quante Donnell Wilder, 35, and Kane Jacob Bowen, 30.
Speakers from the business community cited a lack of police presence downtown. Tiffany Howell owns Burke Street Pub. She wants to see more officers on streets where businesses are open late.
“And I hope and I pray, that we leave this meeting today with a solution and police presence that we pay for as well as these taxpayers pay for in these high-populated entertainment areas at night,” she says.
Vivian Joyner, a co-owner of Sweet Potatoes Restaurant on Trade Street, says downtown needs more community policing. She says 20 years ago she knew the names of most of the bike patrol officers. Today she knows two, and she doesn’t think many officers know who she is.
Joyner says officers need to engage more with people in the downtown area.
“That’s community policing so stop talking about it," she says. "Be about it.”
Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough said he and Winston-Salem Police Chief William Penn, Jr. are putting together a plan to have county personnel help the city officers. That would be a break from tradition. Typically, deputies serve areas outside of the city limits.
Arrests have been made in both Burke Street slayings.
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