Younger groups eyeing gun violence in South Bend as police host gang conference

SOUTH BEND — The age of people caught up in gun and gang violence is getting younger, according to educators at a conference that brought some 300 police investigators to South Bend last week to learn about the latest techniques and technology to combat it.

Gang intelligence officers in the the Midwest Gang Investigators Association took part in its National Gang Conference, and South Bend Police Lt. Kyle Dombrowski, the group's vice president, hopes the things learned here help battle the problems.

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The issue is juveniles — many in their teens — are shooting their way into the crime statistics. Those who intervene — such as Isaac Hunt with the Group Violence Intervention project in South Bend — say they are seeing youths as young as 11 years old with guns and activities where they use them.

Youths without the right activities

Hunt has seen the post-COVID effects where youths have created their own "activities" through social media, online influences and other sources that are not helpful for juveniles to start developing the life skills they need for success.

He said the isolation of COVID lockdowns forced juveniles to come up with their own things to do rather than have parents, adults and community leaders nurture them with life-skill activities.

"Young people should be developing life skills, work skills, and should be getting quality education," Hunt said. "They cannot come to school hungry, and we need to hold parents accountable and we will see small reductions" in crime.

Conversations with others across the country are seeing the same juvenile gun violence patterns, Hunt said in speaking with officials in the Dallas area.

Hunt says that although South Bend has seen as many as seven organized groups he calls "gangs," there is now only one currently organized as an operating group — the Latin Kings.

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That does not mean there are not groups of youths and young adults operating together in the area, he said.

But the GVI director said other socio-economic factors, such as hunger, poverty and inadequate educational opportunities, play into the rise in gun violence and gang activity. Work on those, Hunt says, and you may see changes in what he calls "crimes of proximity," groups who hang around and live together having better relationships that lessen chances for violence.

Fighting gang violence together

South Bend hosted the conference in 2018, and its return to South Bend this year strengthens the ability for law enforcement from the Midwest to work together when groups doing illegal things have a base of operations elsewhere, organizers said.

Dombrowski said in addition to juvenile crimes, the South Bend area and other jurisdictions are seeing rises in financial fraud cases, such as identity thefts, check deceptions, car thefts, and crimes through the use of social media and the Internet. Conferences like these are designed to keep investigators current in ways to detect and thwart those perpetrators.

"From our perspective what we have seen here in South Bend and other jurisdictions is a rise in juvenile crimes, juveniles getting more involved in gun and gang violence at a younger age," Dombrowski said. "Maybe it was because of COVID where it turned to home schooling or where there was no supervision.

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"We've seen a rise in juvenile activity, and the rise of different types of crimes associated with financial stuff, frauds, check deception … but it's also that financial aspect, using social media to commit these different types of crimes."

One-stop police training calendar

Vendors at the conference reflected both the equipment and the technology now being used in group violence investigations. Next to the local holster vendor that offered all types of body cameras and weapon and other device holsters, a Lexis-Nexis booth offered services that can help investigators obtain background information from the internet.

Another website, LEO-Network.com, that aggregates trainers, companies and vendors that have information and goods to offer police in gang investigations. For example, police agencies throughout the country can list their training regimens and classes for other police jurisdictions to consider. This way, website founder David Ross said, police can see how other departments approach certain policing techniques and policies and can learn from others.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: gang violence draws juvenile offenders with guns in South Bend area