'I want to see them doing more': Parents skeptical of town's plans to address 'Gilbert Goons'
Gilbert residents reacted with skepticism and careful optimism to their Town Council's plan to launch a subcommittee to address concerns over the "Gilbert Goons."
The council was expected to form a panel at Tuesday’s meeting after three council members filed paperwork Thursday with the town clerk’s office. The trio said the move came in direct response to residents' growing and widespread concerns of gang-style teen violence and assaults in the town and the Southeast Valley.
Gilbert parents who have been outspoken about the attacks and the Gilbert Police Department's response to them said town leaders needed to act more and talk less. Most thought the plan a good step, but too little, too late.
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A Republic investigation found the “Gilbert Goons,” a gang of mostly affluent teenagers, had engaged in a string of blitz-style attacks on other teens in the southeast Valley for more than a year, according to interviews, court and police records, and social media posts.
Southeast Valley parents and students, as well as community organizers, said members of the Goons were involved in the Oct. 28 fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord in Queen Creek. None of the Goons has been arrested or named as suspects by police in Lord's case. On Dec. 28, Queen Creek police made criminal referrals against seven adults and juveniles to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in the beating death of Lord.
The Gilbert Police Department reopened four criminal investigations involving teens, including attacks by Goons, in December.
One was the investigation into the beating of Richard Kuehner’s 16-year-old son. Kuehner said the proposed panel should have been set up years ago.
“They’re doing it now because there's so much attention brought to them and feel like they have to do something to show the community they take this stuff seriously,” he said.
He said he held off entirely dismissing the idea before seeing what kind of action the panel would take.
Community parents and organizers respond
Kristine Brennan, a Gilbert mother, said any movement forward was good but that it was just one of many things that needed to happen. She hopes the subcommittee of councilmembers doesn’t just work among themselves but broadens its scope to listen to the community's concerns.
“It's bigger than the Town Council because it's been allowed to run rampant for so long,” she said. “They can’t do this without community.”
Brennan is one half of a Facebook page called “Lily Waterfield” that she and her counterpart Angela Rogers use to call out the Goons.
Rogers, in a text message to the Republic, said she appreciated councilmembers “finally bringing their attention” to the violence but remains skeptical. “I am disheartened, disappointed and outraged at the lack of empathy and community commitment we have seen by our leaders,” she wrote.
The duo were among several parents who attended a Town Council meeting in December where nearly a half-dozen people pleaded with the public body to take action.
Gilbert resident Tami Schultz was at the meeting and has been involved in calls for justice for Lord and the victims of other assaults.
She said she’s happy the town was doing something now and hopes for accountability from the Police Department for how the investigations were handled.
“I’ve always been one to go by actions over words, and I just want to see it happening. I want to see them doing more,” she said.
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Another community organizer who wanted meaningful action was Katey McPherson. She said she wants the town to take the committee one step further and create one made up of residents and experts who know how to address these issues and talk with teenagers.
“A lot of times adults sit around tables and subcommittees and make recommendations and they don’t hold listening sessions with the children they are serving or talking about,” she said.
Gilbert previously created a similar community committee called the Human Relations Commission that was founded in 2001 to address social issues in the aftermath of the "Devil Dogs," a white supremacist teenage gang in the town that launched similar violent attacks on other teens in the southeast Valley in the 1990s.
The commission was later dissolved. After protests in 2020, Councilmember Scott Anderson, who served as an interim mayor, proposed bringing back the commission but never did.
Brennan said she would like a community committee and the involvement of a gang task force expert.
"There are people that want to get involved, and there are people that want to help," she said.
McPherson said any panel needed to include experts and involve listening sessions with teenagers.
"If it were up to me, those two things would have to be at the table for (the committee) to be credible," she said.
She also hoped the committee could find ways for local police jurisdictions to better communicate and track repeat offenders.
“I think the subcommittee is a fantastic next step, and I'm excited to hear what comes out of it,” she said.
Reporters Robert Anglen and Elena Santa Cruz contributed to this article.
Reporter Maritza Dominguez covers Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek and can be reached at maritza.dominguez@arizonarepublic.com or 480-271-0646. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @maritzacdom.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert parents skeptical about town panel on 'Goons' violence
