The bullet points on Enfield Police Chief Eric Johnson’s desk paint a grim picture of the problems he is dealing with.
In his 30 years on the police force, he said he has never seen so much youth violence. Johnson said most of the shots fired in his city were at people between the ages of 14 and 19.
“There used to be a time when people talked about these crimes and confined them to the big cities, but now these crimes are everywhere,” he said. “In some cases these young people are better armed than some of my police officers.”
WRAL News reached out to law enforcement agencies in eastern North Carolina and learned that many of them are struggling with an increase in youth violence — especially in more rural communities.
From July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office confiscated 12 firearms from teenagers. Just two years earlier, the number was 9, and the year before that, 5.
Johnson said young people are not only getting guns, but are using them to commit crimes. In Raleigh, nine people age 17 or younger have been charged with murder this year, according to WRAL. The youngest defendant is 14.
On Tuesday, Goldsboro police investigated two young men who broke into Tobacco World & Vape. The younger suspect, 12, was also charged with weapons possession.
WRAL News asked Johnson what could be done.
“The justice system is sitting down, looking at this data, looking at the laws and consulting with the prosecutors and the child welfare services to see what can be done about it,” Johnson said.
However, he says this will take some time and there is no easy solution.
