Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. Part one was published on Friday.
Traveling back to the crime scene Wednesday afternoon, Council Member Joni Alexander retraced her steps — and the steps of the assailants who allegedly robbed her in front of her home early Sunday morning at gunpoint and then who fired their weapons several times as they fled.
Only a few blocks from her home on West Martin Place, Alexander’s belongings were found in an alley behind a house at 804 S. Chestnut St., where Pine Bluff police officers later arrested one of the three suspects, Rodney Whitmore, 30, who was at a neighboring home when officers came to the scene.
At 11:14 a.m. Sunday, June 26, Whitmore was read his Miranda rights. According to the report, Whitmore allegedly admitted to being involved in the robbery. He stated that he did not know the names of the other two suspects. Whitmore was held on charges of aggravated robbery and theft of property and transported to the Jefferson County jail.
Officers stated that during the investigation, one witness reported seeing Whitmore with a black purse and a handgun. The witness also said Whitmore allegedly said he robbed a woman and that was how he obtained the purse, according to police.
As Alexander looked around the house on South Chestnut Street on Wednesday, her burned purse and belongings were still there in a trashed alley behind the development of homes.
On Sunday, Alexander’s sister had pinged Alexander’s phone to the 800 block of Chestnut Street to the exact location where her stolen items were found.
“Me, my mom, my pastor and my husband came over here to get the purse or just to see what all was down here,” said Alexander, who added that it was her pastor who also found a rifle, a backpack and shoes.
An AR-15-type rifle, partially buried undersome leaves, was recovered by crime scene technician MD Shahriyar, who was called to process the area. Shahriyar looked inside the backpack and located a Glock 42. According to the report, the weapons had been reported stolen March 27 from a location in Pine Bluff.
As Alexander revisited the area where her belongings were found, she met a neighbor who said he has had similar experiences with gun violence in the area.
“I’d done been there and done that. I got two babies of my own. I’m just trying to get my life together,” said the young man who added that he is wanting to move out of the neighborhood.
The young man described criminal activity in the neighborhood as recently as two weeks ago, as well as continual theft.
A s t h e yo u n g m a n shared his story, Alexander made the point that some citizens who are less fortunate cannot escape the terror of crime because they do not have the means with which to move.
Alexander also said the trauma of being robbed at gunpoint has changed her perspective on many aspects of life, including her decision not to seek re-election.
“It makes a lot of things make more sense,” Alexander said. “It’s going to allow me to move differently with some things that I am going to pursue in the future because I don’t ever want to be in a situation like that again because I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if I saw a video of my loved one in that situation. It would break my heart.” People with troubled backgrounds, a failed education system, a lack of resources for the police d e pa r t m e n t , co d e e nforcement challenges and slumlords’ inattention to maintaining property were some of factors that Alexander keyed in on as she described what she felt are issues contributing to violence in Pine Bluff.
A l exa n d e r sa i d s h e hopes that by sharing her story, she will help regular citizens start exposing the things that are going on in the community and stop caring about what people will think.
“It’s really now a matter of life and death,” Alexander said. “At the end of the day, they still know where I live.” Though not shocked that someone got robbed in her neighborhood, Alexander is still processing the fact that it happened to her.
“It just so happened it was me this time,” she said. “This is what I’ve always … known that could happen. I didn’t think we were to the point that it would be that extreme.” Alexander said she wants her experience to be a warning to everyone, including elected officials and prominent community members who are planning and making decisions for the city.
“This stuff out here is real and no matter what you do, it doesn’t matter if you are not addressing our true issues that are affecting people every single day,” she said. “We got to stop being ashamed of that. The part that we need to be ashamed of is not doing something about it.”
