TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Along with the usual gun violence, Tucson Police have had to cope with cases where shooters fire vast amounts of bullets at each other, sometimes with guns altered to fire like machine guns. KGUN 9’s Craig Smith had a chance to sit down with Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar to learn more about how Tucson Police—and you– can fight back.
As Tucson Police work to reduce gun violence, they’ve run into a new and difficult challenge: mass shootings where kids as young as 14 years old might fire hundred of bullets at a time.
In August, at the Hookah Lounge on Speedway near Swan the people blasting away were careless about lives, and did not seem to care about a police officer so close they could see his cruiser right down the street.
Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar says, “Nearly 200 rounds were fired at that in about a minute, an officer was right down the street on a traffic stop. That officer's lights were visible, and he had just driven through that area. So the individuals who chose to shoot, who chose to shoot and engage in a gunfight there were aware that police were in the area. So that's a level of boldness that we haven't seen before.”
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF KASMAR:
In April, surveillance video caught a carload of shooters as they attacked a party on 5th Street near University of Arizona.
University of Arizona sophomore Erin Jones died in that shooting. Four young men, aged 17 and 18, are charged with first degree murder in her death.
Chief Kasmar says some of the shooters in these incidents are even younger, maybe 13 or 14 years old. They hang out in places like hookah lounges that stay open well after the 2 a.m. closing time for bars. They combine immature reasoning with powerful weapons, and a weak understanding of the consequences of what they do.
“First of all, who's raising these kids? Why are juveniles out past midnight? Why are they out past curfew? Why do they have guns in their hands? Whose cars are they in? You know, we need people to be accountable to the children that they're raising.”
And the Chief says many of the young shooters are struggling in school or are not in school at all.
The Chief says community involvement, and assigning more officers to investigative and preventive efforts, have helped reduce Tucson’s homicides, with 58 last year compared to 75 in 2022 and 86 in 2021.
He says evidence analysis is helping police trace how guns move through the community and how some of the same guns may be in more than one shooting.
Chief Kasmar says you can help by locking up your guns to prevent the thefts that give guns to criminals; but the chief says everything requires a hard look, including decisions on which suspects judges release on bond and what their consequences will be when they’re sentenced.
“What does accountability look like?" says Kasmar. "We have to look at, why are people being arrested multiple times for prohibited possessor charges and being let out or being provided probation?”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
