By Dispatch Staff Report November 17, 2009 10:51:00 AM
Investigators with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Columbus Police Department arrested a second suspect Monday evening in connection with a Saturday drive-by shooting at 1110 Seventh Ave. N.
Quinton Cortez Hairston 17, of 1517 Third Ave. N. in Columbus, was arrested on charges of drive-by shooting, according to Terri Songer, public information officer with the CPD.
Hairston is being held in the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center awaiting arraignment. No bond or court date has been set.
Joseph Allen Rush, 18, previously was arrested for the same crime.
At about 1:11 a.m. Saturday, CPD officers responded to Seventh Avenue North regarding a drive-by shooting.
An unnamed victim, who was shot twice, was walking east on Seventh Avenue North, when shots were fired from the inside of a gold Chrysler, driving past.
Officers stopped the Chrysler, which Rush was driving, and arrested him on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon. There were two unidentified passengers in the car, who police say will not be charged.
The victim was transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle with non-life threatening injuries.
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Guncontrol | 11/17/2009 4:41:00 PMmark as inappropriate Here we go again another Columbus student and football player. If these students have guns on the street, I wonder how many guns are taken to Columbus High School on daily basis. That school is NOT safe. They need medal detectors at every door. Dr. Phil when you are going to step up to the bat and deal with the situation? Thats why you get paid those BIG bucks.It's more to being a superintendent of schools than football.
?????????? | 11/17/2009 4:43:00 PMmark as inappropriate Do you know that the fight started at Columbus High Friday night in the school then they moved to the parking lot? What is going on out there.
JC | 11/17/2009 5:24:00 PMmark as inappropriate They need medal detectors at every door.
That'll keep out C. Everett Koop.
Gun Owner | 11/17/2009 6:26:00 PMmark as inappropriate They scattered when the police showed up, naturally. But one of them involved left his jacket behind and it had his school ID in it. I guess he didn't think that one thru. The police caught up with some of them behind Food Giant. There was mention of 2 people having guns. Sounds like metal detectors would be a good investment. Hear that Dr. Philips?
Showmethemoney | 11/17/2009 9:38:00 PMmark as inappropriate Columbus High the new Wild Wild East. Phil as much as we pay you, you could pay for the metal detectors out of your pocket you and your henchman Shannon. Funny how the high school has gone down the tubes within the last 2 years. Spending more does not mean better.
ArmedandDangerous | 11/17/2009 9:42:00 PMmark as inappropriate All I want to know is where is the discipline? These are bubba Gump boys did you all not teach them anything? We saw that they did not get much in the way of football training but could you all at least have instilled some discipline?
News | 11/17/2009 10:24:00 PMmark as inappropriate Why haven't this been on the news? We have local high school teenagers running around town with guns.
Concered | 11/18/2009 6:13:00 AMmark as inappropriate My gosh Columbus/Lowndes County need to wake up and smell the gun powder. There is NOTHING to do in Columbus for young people. It is sad that you can't go out at night without fear. Their lives are ruined in a matter of moments because they are bored. This problem is not just related to Columbus High School it is in ALL the schools. Get metal detectors instead of beautification items for the schools do what we have to do to keep our young people out of the system.
Nothing New | 11/18/2009 7:19:00 AMmark as inappropriate This type of activity is not new. The police department and sheriff's department have had town meetings to discuss this type of behavior and of gang activity.
The community has to support the school personnel and law enforcement officers. Parents must not be so critical of measures taken to change behavior of students. Many parents believe what their children say no matter what. They say the school picks on their child. I could only imagine what my parent would have done if I had ever told the teacher, "You can't make me" or have been disrespectful.
If you are a parent, don't ever say that your child wouldn't do that. Hopefully, that is true. If you know a parent who is turning a blind eye to what their child is doing, help them understand that they are not doing their child a favor by defending them. Know where your children are at all times.
Administrators, teachers, coaches--Set strong discipline expectations, take out lockers (where students gather), require mesh bags, supervise every area of the building, require uniforms, use the drug dog, review procedures and rules to follow when confronting a student who may be a threat, etc. --possibly more officers and metal detectors.
Community: Always be alert to what is going on at all times. Be involved with students in your community. Volunteer in a middle or high school.
Law Officers: Continue to be vigilant, provide training to school personnel and community persons to be more aware of what is going on in the Columbus/Lowndes County area, and enforce the curfew.
Everyone has a part to play in improving the quality of our communities.
It's time we all take the responsibility for improving our communities and all of our schools in Lowndes County and Columbus and the blame when our area is in trouble.
Concerned | 11/18/2009 9:17:00 AMmark as inappropriate This is real disturbing. Word on the street is that all of the boys in the car were on Columbus high's football team. We are placing so much pressure on these coaches to win a football game, that we are loosing our future. They can't select the good students and work with them to build a solid winning program, because we have placed the in the "win now mode". It is not their fault these kids are like this, it is ours, they are forced to allow the more athletic bad students play. It is starting to appear that Columbus high is really not a safe place to have your child educated. Now I understand why the Joe Higgins is pushing county schools.
What we are not focusing on is that what happens at the school is affecting our community as a whole. We need to allow the school system to get tough on the one's that does not want to be eduacated. We need to take the politics out of the eduaction process. The city of Columbus is going down, and going down REAL FAST!!!!! This is truly a sad day!
Walter | 11/18/2009 12:37:00 PMmark as inappropriate If guilty, all persons involved, deserve the maximum penalty available under the law. No plea bargain to a lesser charge should be in the offering for this violent crime or any other respecting physical or potential harm to another.
Swiftly, try them fairly, and make it as public a trial as possible. If The Dispatch is able to afford it, assign as many reporters to the story as possible. Give it coverage from all media, far and wide! Thugs depraved enough to driveby, discharging a weapon and risk injurying children or other innocent bystanders are a low as they come.
The bar (defense and prosecutor), law enforcement, the bench, elected-officials and all concerned-citizens must recognize the looming threat that the increasing violence among the youths, residents in general, portend for the area. Law enforement and the court must re-order its priority and adopt a policy of zero tolerance toward offenses involving weapons. Sure, such a policy, is already enacted. But, has it been publicized and demonstrated as wide-spread as those involving, say, drugs and paraphenalia?
The capacity of the state to house and feed inmates is limited. Common-sense dictates that steadily decreasing resources for imprisonment should be directed toward incarcerating vilent offenders and holding them for longer period of time, bar none. To do so, non-violent offenders must be punished, short of imprisonment, so that limited space and resource would be available for individuals depraved enough to shoot from a moving car, whether the car is moving rapidly or slowly.
Where is the deterrence to violent crime, if persons convicted of petty drug offenses get, in some instances, more than triple the time that another gets for taking another person's life or causing someone serious bodily harm? The time is way over-due for elected-officials and concerned-citizens to restore a semblance of balance and sanity to the state's enforcement and sentencing laws. How much more evidence is needed to prove that the system isn't achieving the desired result? Unless the desired result is to simple remove as many young persons of a certain class or race and to encourage them to continue the wholesale killing of one another, the time for reform of the criminal laws of the state is past due.
Barbara | 11/18/2009 12:43:00 PMmark as inappropriate I agree with much of the comments that are made. But, it ALL STARTS AT HOME. It is not the teachers jobs to teach your children what they should have already learned at home. I do feel that some things in the school system needs to be upped; and for those who are in the school district and just holding a seat needs to be moved. Put some one in there who want to teach our children and give them the most protection at school that you can, as if they were your own. But PARENTS for the most part your jobs is to teach them DISCIPLINE & RESPECT. And the thing that kills me is that half of the parents are afraid of their own children. If you can't do anything with them; then what makes you think the school system can make a total change. It starts at home. Parents you need not to only come to the school, when your child tells you some one mistreated them. Come all though the year, come to PTO meetings, pop-up unannounce to make sure things are going the way they should be. Stop talking about other adults, teachers, preachers & others that your children will come in contact with. Children listen to you when least think they are. So how can you expect them to respect others when they hear you talking about the Adults. Just remember it takes a Village to raise a child, so don't tear yours down.
Freddy | 11/18/2009 4:33:00 PMmark as inappropriate Columbus is turning into Aberdeen, which is a garbage pit.
John Davis | 11/18/2009 5:20:00 PMmark as inappropriate Yes I agree discipline does start at home, but also at school as well.Students spend 8 hours at school. What kind of lesson can you learn when you cut class or sagging or argue with a teacher and all you get is a conference with one of the assistant principals. OR you get five days to make up your work after being absent from school, which is the school rule but the teachers turns around 2 months later and give you another chance to make the work up. I bet if I go to work and do not do what I'm suppose to I probably won't get another opportunity to make it up. It is called responsibility. I cut class Monday thru Wed but I start Friday night in a football game. Lets face it Columbus High is not getting it done. Yes they put on a pretty show on the outside but the truth is surfacing to the light.
Pimpinainteasy | 11/18/2009 5:26:00 PMmark as inappropriate Dr.Phil Good is a pimp and the football players are the hustlers
Diane Brown | 11/18/2009 5:38:00 PMmark as inappropriate Why does Columbus High not have medal detectors? They have them at Noxubee County and that school is not as big as Columbus nor do they have the money that Columbus has. We could easily be the next Columbine or Virginia Tech, God forbid. It was reported that about 25 guns were found.What happened to providing protection for the kids and teachers that attend school?
Want more info | 11/18/2009 10:58:00 PMmark as inappropriate 25 guns were found where?
FormerTrojans | 11/19/2009 7:14:00 AMmark as inappropriate I see why Columbus High is so rough they are given to many chances. At New Hope you get o=your warning day one when you get your handbook, we have to take a test on the information in the handbook and pass it. When you broke the rules , you were dealt with, you didn's get off with a slap on the hand like Columbus.
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