The number of people shot in Toledo last year increased significantly from the number of reported shootings in 2010, a trend that is accelerating so far this year, according to information provided by the city's police department.

A particularly violent summer contributed to the spike in shootings — a more than 70 percent increase — with 210 people shot in the city in 2011 compared with 121 shot in 2010.

Through March 27 of this year, the shooting rate has more than doubled, with 48 people shot, including four homicides, up from 19 people shot in the first three months of last year, with one homicide.

HOMICIDE REPORT: Toledo-area killings

"I think it's too early in the year to come to any conclusion on any trends," said Sgt. Joe Heffernan, police department spokesman. Even so, the department is expected to unveil a gun-violence prevention initiative.

The program is "something we've been working on for quite awhile. It's a comprehensive strategy with several different components to it: an aggressive law enforcement component, a community component, and a social services component," Sergeant Heffernan said.

Tracking the number of city shootings is new, the police spokesman said. Data before 2010 were not available.

"I can only speculate as to why the increase," Sergeant Heffernan said. "I'm sure it has something to do with the whole socioeconomic situation in the country and in Toledo."

At what seemed to be a peak of violence in the city last summer, then-police Chief Mike Navarre announced several initiatives aimed to reduce gun-related crimes.

The former chief created a gun task force, which, under Police Chief Derrick Diggs has been slightly restructured and renamed the Crime Suppression Unit.

Despite attempts to quell violence, some residents fear becoming victims.

In North Toledo, where 21 of the shootings have occurred this year, more than any other part of town -- Shyra Wilburn, 22, is considering uprooting her family and leaving the neighborhood where she's lived for 10 years.

"Do I want [my 3-year-old son, William] to grow up here? ... It's hard over here. You have to worry, 'Is my kid safe outside?' "

About a month ago, Ms. Wilburn, who is expecting a second baby in September, received a concealed-carry permit.

Not far from where Ms. Wilburn was visiting her brother that day lives Adam Sanchez, 55, of Dexter Avenue. He said he feels safe in his home even with the increase of gunfire in the neighborhood.

"I don't like it [the violence], and I don't know why they do it, but I feel safe here," he said.

In central Toledo, although there have been fewer shootings than in North Toledo -- 13 so far -- residents say they worry, especially after the shooting death of 81-year-old Fannie Mae Smith, who was sitting in her enclosed front porch watching television when she was hit three times by stray bullets. No one has been arrested for her killing.

Central Toledo neighborhoods were hotbeds of criminal activity last summer, with gunshots fired almost every night and fights in the streets, several residents said.

For Brenda Stephens, 70, a lifelong Toledoan who has lived at her West Woodruff Avenue home for 50 years, the violence is "the worst it's ever been."

"I'm afraid. I'm just afraid," she said as she looked out at the street from her front porch.

The "dope boys," as she calls gang members, don't bother her, but there are gunshots "all the time," even during the daytime hours.

"I'll be walking the dog and hear gunshots, and I have to freeze and think, 'Please don't let a stray hit me,' " said Christie Armstrong, 49, Ms. Stephens' daughter.

Years ago, when Ms. Stephens was in high school, after-school and summer programs helped keep teenagers out of trouble, she said.

Many of those programs have since been downsized or eliminated entirely in attempts to balance city budgets.

The Bell administration has announced several moves to restore at least some summer activity for the city's youth, such as installing additional red-light cameras to pay for programs.

Some residents fear it could be too little, too late.

"Now there's nothing to do, so they have these gangs out here," Ms. Stephens said.

A gang link?

Sergeant Heffernan said he has no information to suggest gang activity is on the rise in the city.

One shooting death, the March 16 slaying of Montrese Moore, 19, at Gas & Go Mini Mart on Cherry Street, has been directly linked by police to gang activity. Several other incidents this year have gang undertones, but police cannot say if they are a result of gang rivalries or if personal problems are at issue.

Some may even be inter-gang quarrels.

After Moore was killed, police worried about retaliation, and put additional patrols on the streets.

One man, who identified himself as a friend of Moore's, said last week that, when he heard about his friend's death, he "wanted to kill" whomever was responsible.

"Hopefully, as time goes on and things calm down between the two groups, we won't have to worry about that anymore," Sergeant Heffernan said. "If we have reason to believe something is going to happen, we adjust our strategies to account for it."

Police also have to adjust depending on how much cooperation they receive from victims and potential witnesses. A code of silence that seems to rule the streets has residents afraid to speak out.

In all parts of the city last week, many people refused to comment, even in general terms, on violence and crime in the city.

Fear of retaliation

One 22-year-old woman said, "I can't tell you my name. We can't take no chances out here. We'll be dead tomorrow."

Other residents -- predominantly young, black men -- refused to comment. One man with a tattoo on his neck that reads "Out Stickney," sitting on the front porch of a North Toledo home, said he couldn't comment because he's "still in the system" and that he would be arrested by police.

"[Cooperation is] crucial," Sergeant Heffernan said. "Most of the times when we're going to these crime scenes, we're there after the fact. It's imperative that we have cooperation from the citizens to help solve the crimes."

The shootings that continue to plague the city destroy lives and families, Sergeant Heffernan said.

Last week, after the arraignment of Kevin Jamalvenson James, 20, who is accused of killing Moore, members of the victim's and suspect's families fought inside a city courtroom.

"It's not really a story of one life destroyed, but two," Sergeant Heffernan said.

Shot 5 times

He wanted to be an architect.

He wanted to graduate from Waite High School, go to college. Lawrence James, 19, had it pretty much figured out.

But on Dec. 17, five men claiming to be police officers kicked in the front door of his family's East Toledo home, and forced him, his mother, and 3-year-old brother to the floor.

It was a raid, the men yelled as they stormed the Platt Street home.

As the men, cash in hand, fled, one man fired multiple times.

Mr. James fell in front of his mother and brother, Barack James, taking five bullets -- three in his right leg, one in his left arm, and one in a foot.

The blow to his arm damaged a nerve and messed up his hand.

"That memory just lasts," the teenager said, rotating his arm to show the scar.

Mr. James hasn't been to school since the shooting. He's depressed. Stressed out. He once asked his mother, Twila Owens, 39, why the men just didn't kill him.

After the group of men fired at Mr. James, they crossed the street, where they shot and killed 38-year-old Dana Frison.

No arrests have been made in either shooting.

The James family has been changed forever.

Three-year-old Barack remembers it all. He can show you the notches the bullets left in the living-room floor.

"It went boom, boom, boom, boom," the boy said.

Ms. Owens' 17-year-old son was arrested by police for carrying a gun he got after the shootings in December.

"He wanted to be a big man and protect the family," Ms. Owens said, adding she was glad police picked him up.

And Mr. James, who still has two bullets in his leg, has given up on his dream.

Despite the war on the streets, some city residents such as Ms. Stephens say police are doing everything they can.

"The crime is overwhelming them," she said. "They do what they can. ... The police department works hard. They earn their keep out here."

Contact Taylor Dungjen at: tdungjen@theblade.com or, 419-724-6054.

First Published March 28, 2012, 4:00 a.m.