On Thursday, Aug. 21, at approximately 1:00 a.m. Richard Kent Smith, a North Park resident, was murdered following a failed carjacking. Smith and a friend were parking his car at the rear of an apartment building that he managed, located at 3939 Idaho Street, when the incident occurred.

According to the police, the suspects approached Smith’s car as he pulled into his parking spot off of an alley and ordered him to hand over the keys to the car as well as his money. Smith got out of the car and confronted the suspects. When a physical fight broke out Smith’s companion took the opportunity to escape down the alley. It was at this point that one of the suspects pulled a gun and shot Smith’s companion in the back. The victim continued to run south down the alley to University Avenue where he flagged down a police officer responding to a call about the violence.

According to witnesses, Smith broke free of his attackers and made it inside a security gate to get away from them. It was at this point that the suspects shot him in the chest. He died in the courtyard of the apartment building.

A joint news conference was held Wednesday, Sept. 3, at the North Park Community Service Center with Third District City Councilmember Toni Atkins and the city’s new chief of police, William Lansdowne, to address the incident and others in a recent string of violent crimes, which has included three murders in the last month.

“One of the toughest, least pleasant aspects of being an elected official is hearing that one of your constituents has been murdered,” Atkins said, referring to the carjacking and murder. “Police Chief Lansdowne and I want to let the public know that we are aware of this crime and are deeply concerned when any violent crime occurs in our neighborhoods.”

According to police statistics, violent crime is up this year with 27 incidents through the month of August, compared to a total of 24 for all of last year. At the press conference Atkins and Lansdowne called on district residents to reactivate the hugely successful Neighborhood Watch programs that helped reduce crime in District Three by more than 50 percent in the mid to late 1990s.

Neighborhood Watch is a community-based program that encourages residents to keep watch over their neighbors’ homes in an effort to cut down on the number of crimes in their neighborhood. It originally started in the 1960s as a way to decrease and deter the number of burglaries occurring throughout the country.

“Neighborhood Watch programs have proved themselves time and time again,” said Lansdowne. “People who make the effort to alert police when there is suspicious activity make themselves, their neighbors and their communities safer. That improves the quality of life for everyone, and that’s really the goal of all of us who work in local government. I’m looking forward to working with Councilmember Atkins in revitalizing Neighborhood Watch wherever it’s needed in the Third District.”

The suspects in the carjacking are young African-American males in their mid to late 20s. Both were armed with handguns. Both suspects were wearing light colored baseball caps and were approximately six feet tall. The surviving victim did see the two of them prior to entering the parking lot at the apartment building, and it may have been a crime of opportunity rather than one that was planned out in advance.

The two suspects are still on the loose, and police are asking anyone with information about the shootings to contact them at (619) 531-2000.