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‘Do I have a target on my back?’: Baton Rouge homeless on alert after 3 killings | Crime/Police

Amanda Owens knows how common violence can be among those who are homeless. Still, this month feels different.

In the days after Baton Rouge police said the fatal shootings of three homeless people — within a two-week period — are potentially connected, the capital city’s homeless community is on edge and shelters are expanding services in an effort to ensure its safety.

The streets can be a dangerous place, and police and social workers are warning the homeless to be extra-vigilant.

“Each one of us, we have faced all kinds of things,” Owens said. “It does make us be on the lookout. It’s like — do I have a target on my back, or what?”

Christina Fowler, 53, and Gregory Corcoran, 40, were found shot dead near the North Boulevard overpass on Dec. 13. Friday, Tony Williams, 50, was found dead on the porch of a vacant home about two blocks away from where Fowler and Corcoran were found.

A man and woman who were discovered shot to death this month under the North Boulevard overpass may have been homeless, but they weren’t witho…

Police Chief Murphy Paul and East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III announced Friday the killings could be related. Owens, who has been a part of the homeless community for about five years, and returns to the North Boulevard area periodically to visit old friends, said it’s proper to be alarmed.

“We’ve been talking a lot. We’re kind of wondering if it’s a serial killing-type thing,” Owens said. “We can assume the homeless are being targeted. Maybe they’re not, we don’t know. But it sure looks that way.”

Paul said no one is sure yet whether the homeless are being targeted but that steps had to be taken to protect those without a permanent home.

“We do believe that it was incumbent upon us to provide the public, the media and the service providers that provide services to our homeless community that there is danger in sleeping outside,” Paul said.

Officers deployed around the city, telling organizations to spread the word for the homeless and vulnerable people they serve to stay on their guard.

An apparently homeless man was found dead on the porch of a vacant house Friday morning, and Baton Rouge Police say his death may be connected…

Saturday afternoon, homeless people wandered along the stretch of road leading to the various shelters adjoining Convention Street. Most huddled in doorways or under overhangs to avoid the light drizzle that picked up as the day wore on.

At the St. Vincent de Paul cafeteria, some volunteers seemed to vaguely know about the latest homicides, though they lacked details. Many homeless people in the area said they had heard rumors about the incidents. Several have noticed an increase in police patrolling the streets in recent days.

Few were aware that the shootings might be connected, though they had heard an announcement at St. Vincent de Paul, the largest shelter operator in the city, which increased its capacity in response.

Executive Director Michael Acaldo said the shelter’s director opened extra space in the wake of the killings, following the same protocol it enacts when temperatures drop close to freezing. He said the organization is doing its best to communicate with its guests, given limited resources following the holiday rush.

Acaldo also pointed out that the “disaster” protocol they have implemented generally has to do with natural disasters — not man-made ones.

“In my time working here, we’ve never had a situation quite like this,” Acaldo said. “Hopefully we’ll never have this situation again. They’re just so very vulnerable, and every life is precious.”

He added that because so many of the people they serve are suffering from mental illness that manifests in paranoia and anxiety, they are trying to communicate the danger in an appropriate way to not exacerbate their stress.

Last January, volunteers counted more than 350 homeless people across Baton Rouge after fanning out across the city to check places like libraries and encampments where the homeless often congregate. Though it’s a rough estimate that is sent to the Louisiana Housing Corporation, it gives an insight into homeless rates and factors compounding their struggles.

Volunteers noted that 76 people they counted last January had a mental illness, 82 suffered from substance abuse and 57 had a physical disability.

Acaldo said he and others have observed homeless people have become more visible in recent years, with people camping out in open spaces rather than inside buildings or tucked invisibly behind a river levee. Baton Rouge matches a pattern in several other cities across the country that have seen a spike in visible homelessness.

Beyond expanding the shelters’ capacities, Alcado said they’re trying to let people know that if they are remaining on the street because they are using drugs or drinking alcohol — which are off-limits at St. Vincent de Paul shelters — they should try to find areas to sleep that are not visible from the street.

All three killings were nearly in the open, with the victims visible from the street when they were found. Officials haven’t detailed a potential motive.

Residents said what makes them the most uneasy is the way the victims appear to have been killed. Owens described it as “execution-style.”

She said from her understanding, the people were sleeping when they were shot at close range.

“Pretty much everybody’s going to know what’s going on [in the community],” she said. “A lot of times it can be a case of hand-to-hand combat, or somebody pulls out a knife or something like that. It’s not done as an execution; that doesn’t happen between the homeless. It’s always something that blows out of control.”

Police have said that the victims of the double-slaying two weeks ago were lying down when discovered. Friday’s victim was found unresponsive on the porch of a vacant house on North 18th Street. As the investigations are ongoing, authorities have released few details of what they believe led to the killings or the manner in which they were killed. Police don’t want to tip their hand.

Owens characterized the shootings as “methodical” and “thought-out” — dispassionate compared to the heated and messy altercations that she believes are more common among the homeless in the area. People talk in the community, she said, and no one seems to know who is doing the killings, which she said is unusual in such a close-knit group where she admitted gossip runs rampant.

“Whoever did this is an incredibly cold and efficient person,” she said.

The East Baton Rouge Metro Council this year fenced off the Trevor Sims Bridge near St. Vincent de Paul where the homeless often gathered and slept.

Owens and Edward Blla[cq], 73, a volunteer who lives nearby, said they remember when the area beneath the overpass was fenced in because the homeless encampments there housed people with the most severe addictions. Women were often sexually assaulted, Blla said, and people were stabbed regularly.

“It’s just ironic — the biggest reason these fences were built was to prevent this sort of thing,” Owens said. “If you can’t access it, it’s not going to happen there. This used to be a pretty dangerous area, and it’s nowhere near as bad as it was. That’s why I was shocked when I heard about the shootings.”

Sunday afternoon, fewer people than usual stopped by a nearby tent where volunteers gave them a hot meal and offered to connect them to resources.

Though advocates and authorities have warned people to remain vigilant, for those staying on the streets, it’s already inherently dangerous, said Tiffany Simpson, the executive director of It Takes a Village, an organization that feeds and connects the poor and homeless with resources.

“Nobody out here feels safe any day,” she said. “They’re taking all the precautions they can take anyway, but there’s not really any way they can be safer.”

Darrell Blanks, 63, has been staying at a nearby shelter for the past four years and said he’s taking extra precautions when he goes out, even canceling a doctor’s appointment this weekend because he would have had to bike home in the dark.

He said he’s used to navigating the sharp edges when he’s been without a place to stay. But the killings, which he perceived as random, have left him anxious that the homeless, an already vulnerable population, are being singled out.

“These people weren’t bothering anyone,” Blanks said. “Someone’s got hatred in their heart for the homeless.”

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