If you’re looking for a silver lining to the dark cloud of two homicides within two weeks in Peoria, it can be found in the fact that police have a suspect in custody for each case. There are still 11 homicides from 2006 that remain unsolved with nary a suspect.
Within a week after this year’s first homicide, police arrested Bryce K. Lowder of 1017 W. Wilcox Ave. “on a charge of murder in connection with the slaying of 18-year-old DeAndre T. Allen,” according to the 1/7/07 Journal Star. Today the paper reports that “Shane L. Heuck, 1711 N. Douglas St., was booked on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Virginia K. Mallow.”
Let’s just hope now that the state’s attorney will do a good job prosecuting them and get a couple of convictions.
A mere 13 days into the new year, and 12 days after the first homicide of 2007, a 72-year-old woman was found dead in her West Bluff home, and police have determined it was a homicide. WEEK also has this story on their website, and they’re reporting that an autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
The Journal Star identifies the victim as Virginia K. Mallow of 438 W. Doubet Ct. in Peoria. Today would have been her 73rd birthday.
This is just so unbelievably sad. What is our city coming to? What can we do to stop the violence? It must be stopped.
This isn’t a good omen. DeAndre Allen of Peoria was shot to death at 9:10 p.m. on New Year’s Day at 3229 N. Gale Ave. And Peoria’s homicide rate continues unabated.
But Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard is looking on the bright side. Noting that another person standing near Allen was also grazed by a bullet, the Journal Star quotes the Chief as saying:
“It’s very difficult,” Settingsgaard said of the new year’s first homicide. “We’re lucky we don’t have two people dead.”
With every dark cloud, there’s a silver lining, eh? It’s good to be positive, but something has to be done to curb the homicide rate in this city before we get a reputation like Gary, Indiana.
