by P.D. Lesko

According to Washtenaw County Trial Court records, between June 19, 2020 and July 19, 2021, five people in Washtenaw County were arrested and charged with murder, including Open Murder, Felony Murder and 2nd Degree Murder. During that same period, eight people were arrested and charged with Assault With Intent to Murder. According to Trial Court Records, between June 19, 2022 and July 19, 2023, 15 people in Washtenaw County have been arrested and charged with murder, including Open Murder, Felony Murder and 2nd Degree Murder. Fourteen people have been arrested and charged with Assault With Intent to Murder.

Murder arrests and prosecutions are up 300 percent; attempted murder arrests and prosecutions are up 89 percent, respectively.

In 2023, Washtenaw County is on track to see an unprecedented 30 murders in a single year.

“Enough is enough,” said former Ypsilanti Twp. Trustee Monica Ross-Williams, addressing County Prosecutor Eli Savit at a community event held on July 19 at Prospect Park in Ypsilanti.

Ross-Williams was referring to 14 murders in Washtenaw County since mid-summer 2023.

Savit’s reaction was unfortunate: he smiled, made faces and rolled his eyes in front of four mothers whose children have been murdered in the county over the past 40 days. To Savit’s credit, at least he showed up. No one from the Sheriff’s Dept. or the Ypsilanti Police Dept. attended the July 19 community event.

“Where’s the Sheriff? Where’s Jerry?” asked organizer Shannon McFall. Those present nodded their heads and clapped.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell was in DC, but sent members of her staff to represent her at the gathering.

At 6:30 p.m. on July 19 approximately 100 people came together at Prospect Park in Ypsilanti to discuss the sharp increase in murder and gun violence in Washtenaw County.

One of those murdered in June 2023 was 16-year-old Dallas Williams. His mother Kadessa Anderson and other family members were present at the July 19 gathering. Anderson lost her son when 19-year-old Tamar Louis Lorenzo Young fired at four young men, killing Dallas Williams, Tyrese Burks and injuring two of Dallas’s brothers, Cater and Travis Williams.

It has since come out that Tamar Young, allegedly in possession of a gun, was on an electronic tether monitored by the Sheriff’s Dept. when he shot the four young men. When Young left the area in which he was legally permitted to be outside of his home, the Sheriff’s Dept. could have dispatched a patrol car to pick him up. That didn’t happen and two young men were murdered.

In addition, in Mar. 2023, the 14A District Court had issued a bench warrant for Tamar L. Young. Neither the Sheriff’s Dept. or the Ypsilanti Police Dept. picked him up between Mar.-June 27, 2023, the day he shot four people.

The Prospect Park community event organizers Tammy Reynolds and Shannon McFall, both of whom were born and raised in Washtenaw County (Reynolds was born, raised and lives in Ypsilanti Twp.), put together the event to honor the families of the kids murdered over the past 40 days in Washtenaw County. The attendees included four mothers whose children have been murdered, the victims’ families, County Prosecutor Eli Savit, Ypsilanti Twp. Supervisor Brenda Stumbo, Ypsilanti Twp. Trustee Ryan Hunter, Ypsilanti Twp. Treasurer Stan Eldridge, and Ypsilanti City Council member Desiree Simmons.

Sheriff’s candidate Ken Magee and his wife attended, handing out water. He also took the opportunity to talk to attendees, listening to their feedback about county policing. Alyshia Dyer, a third candidate for Sheriff, was invited but did not attend.

Channel 7 News covered the July 19 event. Reporter Alex Bozarjian noted the Sheriff’s absence in the news station’s July 20 lead story.

Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown did not attend though she was invited and her city residents have been murdered. Brown’s Facebook page was last updated in Feb. 2023, highlighting herself for Black History Month.

While Prosecutor Savit doesn’t control crime prevention programs and policies in the County, he is responsible for charging, determining bond amounts and prosecuting those accused of capital felonies such as criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, attempted murder and felony murder. A local attorney with connections to the Michigan Parole Board told A2Indy that more felons than ever before are requesting to serve their paroles in Washtenaw County, specifically because of what the felons perceive as Savit’s “soft on crime” policies.

Prior to the start of the event, organizer Tammy Reynolds told attendees that Derrick Jackson, the Sheriff’s Dir. of Community Engagement, said he would attend and that he would bring with him a representative from Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (CMH). Jackson, who is running for Sheriff in 2024, never showed up and neither did anyone from CMH.

The mothers of the murdered children told those in attendance that no one from CMH had reached out to them to discuss grief counseling for themselves and their remaining children.

“That Derrick said he would come and then didn’t show up is some straight up bullshit,” said organizer Shannon McFall. “He’s the Dir. of Community Engagement for the Sheriff. I was told he was on his way and then warned that people at the event were talking about the Sheriff’s Dept. and corruption. He turned his car around.”

Multiple people who spoke at the event questioned the absence of Sheriff Jerry Clayton on whose watch murder in the County has skyrocketed. The increase has come after Clayton and his employee Derrick Jackson secured $1.2 million in federal ARPA grant funding from the County Commissioners for a local non-profit group called Supreme Felons, Inc. According to the group’s grant application composed by Derrick Jackson in partnership with registered sex offender Alan K. Fuqua, Supreme Felons began “interrupting violence” in the 48197/48198 zip codes in 2020. Since Jan. 2023 when the group started receiving monthly payments of its $1.2 million in taxpayer funds, murder in Washtenaw County’s 48197/48198 areas has skyrocketed.

Organizer Tammy Reynolds had personally invited the new Ypsilanti Chief of Police Kirk L. Moore. He was a no show.

Also invited was County Commissioner Annie Somerville; she represents Ypsilanti. Somerville did not attend. She has thrown her public support behind the murderers, rapists, child sexual predators and wife beaters who comprise Supreme Felons, Inc., instead of victims of those crimes in Washtenaw County.

Justin Hodge, chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has repeatedly insisted that “Supreme Felons saves lives” in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. Hodge has sharply criticized county residents who’ve expressed shock and dismay at the gift of public money to a group incorporated by a murderer on parole and a child sexual predator who is a registered sex offender.

One Ypsilanti Twp. resident who attended the event spoke about “corruption” in law enforcement and called the Washtenaw County Commissioners “completely out of touch.” On July 12, County Commissioners gave the Sheriff, themselves and County Administrator Greg Dill enormous pay raises.

At the July 12 meeting of the County Commissioners, local attorney Doug Winters spoke about Mark Simpson, a 24-year-old executed by being shot in the head twice by Supreme Felons, Inc. co-incorporator Billy Cole who, with Derrick Jackson’s permission, passes himself off as the “president” of Supreme Felons, Inc. Winters knew and was friends with Mark Simpson.

County Commissioner Caroline Sanders, who represents Pittsfield Twp., and who voted to give $1.2 million in public money to Supreme Felons, Inc., rebutted Winters’ comments. She called him racist.

According to the July 19 event organizers Tammy Reynolds and Shannon McFall, that evening in the park was just the start. They said they intend to continue to focus on public policy problems in the county through community engagement.