ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY)-- As law enforcement continues their investigation into a homicide that happened Monday night on Israel Parker Drive. Two people are behind bars in connection with the crime.
Carlton Hills, 57, faces six charges including 2nd-degree murder charge, three charges for obstruction of justice, 2nd-degree cruelty to juvenile and firearm free zone; notice.
Investigators also arrested Laticia Lewis, 42, on three charges including 2nd-degree cruelty to a juvenile, principal to 2nd-degree murder and failing to report a certain felony.
Hills’ bond is $415,000 and Lewis’ bond is $150,000. Both are being held in the Vermilion Parish Correctional Center.
“People are locked up and somebody is now deceased and just me thinking, I always feel like, was that the last resort? You know what I'm saying? Was there something that could have been done to prevent this? Pastor Lawrence Levy, also an Abbeville native and community activist, asked.
He said the neighborhood where the recent homicide is widely known for its history of high crimes in the community.
“Well that particular area has always kind of been a high crime area. Abbeville altogether but that area, because it attracts a lot of people because the Live Oak Manor Apartments are right there,” he said. “I know it seemed like it [crime] had slowed down a bit, but yet still it still has that aura and that persona about it. So at the end of the day, I'll just pray for the city in that particular area.”
News 10 has been reporting over the years and several crimes involved gun violence within the same street of the recent homicide or near it. Shootings around and at the Live Oak Manor Apartments on Martin Luther King Drive where police arrested several men and a juvenile. Another was a shooting on Schlesinger Street at Maude Avenue where a teenager was shot in the head getting off a school bus. Also, when 14 year old Dylan Plowden, lost his life to gun violence while getting a soda from the outside vending machine on the same street where the recent homicide happened.
“We need some reinforcement in those areas, not only from police officers, but just citizens as well, those that are in the area I think their voices need to speak out in terms of what is taking place in the communities so that we can try and have a safer place for the kids that are still baby, the kids that are still growing and going to school in areas such as that; still are just innocent, wanting to just play outside, ride bikes,” Levy said.
“At the end of the day, I do believe that we as a community have a job to do outside of the politics of the city," he said.
While Abbeville police never yet released the identity of the victim in the Monday night homicide they said the family has been notified. There is still no known motive released to the public of what led up to the shooting at 1401 Israel Parker Drive. However Levy adds there’s a huge communication problem within some Black communities.
“We have to learn how to begin taking preventative measures," Levy said.
We do not know how to respectfully communicate when there is an altercation without violence being involved and so that is one of the biggest problems that we see in the African American communities. We do not know how to articulate our words or we do not know how to express ourselves when there is a disagreement without violence being a part of it,” he said.
“I love my city and I'm praying for my city," Levy said.
He is planning to host a Stop The Violence Rally soon.
