The Homeless Alliance’s Point In Time Count counted about 1,340 individuals who expertise homelessness in Oklahoma City. Thirty-five % of the 1,340 reside fully exterior.
In current weeks, two encampments have changed into crime scenes. The newest occurred Saturday morning close to North Western Avenue and the Kilpatrick Turnpike Service Road.
“This was a disturbance or disagreement over a dog that was jointly owned by the victim and one of the suspects,” Oklahoma City Police Department public information officer Dillon Quirk stated.
Related: Police Investigating NW Oklahoma City Homicide
Police arrested James Guillory and Siera McCoy-Griffen for Saturday’s killing. Authorities consider that sufferer was crushed to dying.
The first murder occurred Aug. 21 close to Southwest twenty fourth Street and Brookline Avenue. Authorities stated Tony Ivers shot and killed one other one who tried to get into his tent.
The two crimes aren’t associated. The victims stay anonymous.
Encampments and the unsheltered homeless make up greater than one-third of OKC’s housing insecure.
Homeless Alliance affiliate government director Meghan Mueller stated that quantity fluctuates with extra folks on the streets on the ends of the month when advantages corresponding to social safety checks run dry.
“Living outdoors can be dangerous, right?” Mueller said. “You don’t have a door to lock when you go to bed. You’re occupying public space. Your exposure to things like the weather, extreme weather. That risk increases, but your risk of being the victim of a crime also is potentially increased just by nature of living outdoors.”
While they didn’t have contact with the two killed, Mueller said the people they serve at the Homeless Alliance are more than clients. They’re part of their community.
“Our shoppers are folks which are recognized to us they usually’re particular,” Mueller stated. “They’re our neighbors, so once we lose a shopper, our workers sometimes take that onerous. We attempt to do a remembrance, and simply keep in mind this was a human being. This was somebody’s mom, father sister, brother. This particular person was necessary, and we attempt to acknowledge that.”
If you’d like extra information on the Homeless Alliance, click here.
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