Columnist Jeff German: Tanisha’s streets still not safe

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

Tanisha Turner was walking home about 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 when she got caught in the crossfire of a gun battle among unknown participants and was killed.

The 13-year-old, who was just three doors from her house when a bullet struck her in the head, had the misfortune of living in one of the more crime-infested neighborhoods in North Las Vegas, near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards.

Authorities thought they had done a lot to clean up Tanisha's neighborhood. In August the FBI and North Las Vegas police announced the indictment on federal racketeering charges of 21 gang members who operated in the area.

The defendants, allegedly members of the Rolling 60s, which is affiliated with the Crips, a violent West Coast street gang, were charged with carrying out a series of crimes, including robbery and murder.

But then came Tanisha's death and the grieving that followed and, with her killers at large, North Las Vegas police were reminded that more work is needed to make the streets safe.

And they wondered whether this would be the wake-up call for residents in the neighborhood to make a greater commitment to helping officers take back the streets.

On Monday it was heartbreaking watching Ternia Turner weeping over her slain daughter during the crowded funeral service at the Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, just blocks from where Tanisha died.

Friends described Tanisha as someone who always had a big smile on her face. She loved to sing and dance and play basketball and had aspirations of becoming a nurse.

This young girl must have indeed been special because some 500 well-wishers, many of them teary-eyed, packed the church to remember Tanisha and give comfort to her mother and nine brothers and sisters. Some, however, were so shaken, they had to leave the service.

Standing just a few feet from the white casket, trimmed in brass and topped with a large bouquet of pink carnations, one friend described Tanisha as the "perfect angel." Another friend, holding back tears, said she was the sister she never had.

Her cousin, Jasmine Brooks, read a poem that called upon Tanisha to "keep on smiling (in heaven) 'cause you're always going to be missed."

In an interview North Las Vegas Police Department spokesman Justin Roberts said that, since Tanisha's death, some residents have shed their fear of the criminals roaming the neighborhood and have begun to cooperate more with officers.

It's an encouraging sign because police can't do it alone.

But so far, according to Roberts, the only clue police have is a white '80s-something Chrysler New Yorker driving away from the shooting.

One man who says he's willing to help shake things up is Ramont Williams, who described himself as a former imprisoned gang member dedicated to detouring youths from following in his footsteps.

Williams said outside the service that he never knew Tanisha, but was motivated by her death to help residents in her neighborhood regain control of the streets.

"We're going to bring about a change," he said. "This just isn't going to be another tragedy."

A good start would be for residents to help North Las Vegas police find Tanisha Turner's killers.