Spike In Violent Crimes Involving Teens Concerns Officials

The recent driveby at Westbury High School and the stabbing of one Lamar student by another in Ervan Chew park in June aren't just isolated incidents, it seems. It's looking more and more like they're a trend, and a troubling one at that: both the numbers of teenage homicide victims and the numbers of felony-level violent crimes commited by teens are up significantly over last year.

Thirty three juveniles have been victims of homicide through October in 2006, compared with only twenty in the same portion of 2005, and the '05-'06 year saw the most homicides with juvenile suspects since 1998, according to HPD data. Possible reasons for the increase include an upswing in the amount of gang violence (some attributed to MS-13, with which Chew Park victim Gabriel Granillo was associated) and cuts in funding for crime prevention programs that work with at-risk teens.

Turf battles have led to an increase in gang-related activity, especially around Sharpstown, Lee, and Westbury High Schools, considered problematic areas by the Mayor's Anti-Gang Office as well as by officials at programs such as Youth Advocates, a non-profit that recently moved it's offices to Southwest Houston, nearer these areas.

Though a relatively new task force in cooperation with the FBI works to combat gang violence, Councilman Adrian Garcia, who used to head up the Anti-Gang Office, says there's still a problem. "[The Westbury shooting] just tells us we got more work in front of us and we continue to work hard", he said.