Just four days after two teenagers were shot and killed the house on Wilkins Street where the shooting took place is boarded up. 15-year old Da'Marre Shaw and 15-year old Brent Coley died after a gunman entered the house and began firing shots. Shaw died just outside the house, Coley died a block away. Police believe the gunman entered the house looking for drugs and money. Residents tell News Eights the abandoned houses on the street contribute to the drug problem. “It doesn't seem like there’s much concern about the abandoned houses,” said one neighbor. Residents say they’re frustrated that the city seems to be doing little to fix the problem. “Landlords abandon the houses and they never come to see about them and some of them turn into drug houses,” said one woman who didn’t want to be identified. “There's a lot of problems with abandoned houses here. Next door we had a couple of people maybe squatting there or whatever maybe selling drugs or whatever out of that house,” said another resident. “I don't know why that house wasn’t boarded up but I do know what we're experiencing now is no different from what we experienced ten or 15 years ago,” said former prosecutor Van While. White says 15-years ago the city had a different approach more successful approach to dealing with abandoned houses that were being used as drug houses. Former Mayor Bill Johnson launched the H.E.A.T. or Help Eliminating Aggressive Trafficking program. White says it involved several agencies and the goal was not just removing the drugs and the criminals but keeping the house open. “If its a multi-tasked, multi disciplined approach to close down drug houses you will see drug houses close down but you'll see them open back up because the tools that are used to close them down are different,” said White. White believes it's a collaborative effort that can make a difference. “If the approach is we're going to just use RPD to close down these drug houses you will see an effort that will fail,:” added White.
