Man becomes Racine's 3rd murder victim in nine days

By Janine Anderson

Sunday, July 3, 2005 2:04 AM CDT

RACINE - The shooting early Saturday morning that left a 21-year-old man dead is Racine's third murder in the past nine days and the city's sixth this year.

Julius L. Mayweather, 21, of Racine, died Saturday as the result of gunshot wounds.

Police were called to the east alley in the 1800 block of Franklin Street just after 5 a.m., when someone reported hearing shots fired. The preliminary investigation shows the victim was a passenger in a van. He got into the van when another vehicle came up from behind. The second vehicle drove past the van and shots were fired into the van, hitting the victim.

The Racine Police Department is looking for the suspect vehicle, a light blue 1988 to 1990 General Motors vehicle, possibly a Buick Century or Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.

Police denied reports from local radio and television outlets that the killing is in retaliation for the June 24 murder of Darius Harlan. Harlan, 18, was shot twice in the chest outside his grandmother's home in the 800 block of Park Avenue.

The killing of Mayweather is added to those of Rhonette Lange, 31, stabbed at her Chicago Street house June 29; Harlan; Ebodia Meza-Rojas, 34, shot in her Irving Place home April 22; Arthur J. Winch Jr., 58, died April 20, a week after he was found near Uptown after being severely beaten; and Daniel Flowers, 40, shot dead March 30 in a Jacato Drive apartment.

Mayweather's death puts the number of homicides for the first half of 2005 above that of all of 2004, when five murders were committed in Racine.

Racine Police Sgt. William Macemon said that while it is unusual to have three violent deaths so close together, there is no evidence yet that they are related. Despite the holiday weekend, he said, investigators are working on the Mayweather case, trying to find out more about the shooting and suspects who may have been involved.

For the past month the George Bray Neighborhood Center, 924 Center St., has been working to stem violence in the city. At meetings over the past several weeks officials from the center said the level of violence in the neighborhood has increased over the past several years.

"There's something going on with our kids. There's a hopelessness and desperation we need to address," Jameel Ghuari, director of the Bray Center, said at a meeting last week. "We've been in the trenches every day, but we all have something we can contribute to make the community better."

Crystal Bizzle, Harlan's mother, said she was "so stunned to hear someone else was fatally shot."

Bizzle said people need to work together to stop the violence in the city.

"I feel like our community needs to come together, all parents need to come together with their kids," she said. "People need to hear the reality of people that have fought through it."

She said the city's youths need to be aware of what violence can do and change their behavior to keep from getting involved.

"It ain't that they don't know, they don't want to take heed," she said. "People over and over have expressed to these kids that guns kill. The kids ain't getting it. It goes in one ear and out the other.

"They don't know one day it could be them. They're not listening. Everybody wants to know everything and they don't want to learn and listen."

Harlan was the second of Bizzle's sons to die a violent death; her eldest son, Michael Bizzle, also 18, was shot on Aug. 2, 2000.

She wishes the police could do more to keep violence down, like patrolling bars as they let out and encouraging everyone to get in their cars and go home.

Macemon said the police are working to keep violence down. They are working with neighborhoods and neighborhood associations and have taken part in the anti-violence meetings at the Bray Center.

"Beyond the stuff that we do every day trying to combat crime, there's not a whole lot we can do," Macemon said. "We're addressing problems on a daily basis."

Thomas Barton contributed to this report.

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