FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): Can you solve crimes without the help of your local community? The question stems from a shooting investigation earlier this week.
On Memorial Day, Fort Wayne Police officers responded to the intersection of East Pontiac and Abbott Streets in reference to a man lying in the alley south of East Pontiac Street.
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The victim had been shot, but police say he refused to cooperate and wouldn’t tell them anything about the shooting.
Michael Joyner, Public Information Officer with the Fort Wayne Police Department, tells WOWO News the likelihood of successfully solving a crime without a victim’s assistance or help from a witness is very remote.
“People start looking at the stats, well you’ve got this open case… and they ask us, ‘why hasn’t it been solved?’ Well quite frankly, because number one, we can’t get the victim to cooperate with us,” says Joyner. Number two, there are witnesses that saw this event go down, but they’re not cooperating with us so what do you want us to do? It’s almost like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Ultimately, he went on to say, the lack of information gets very frustrating when it comes to trying to make a difference.
“The bad guy wins every time when he or she feels comfortable in knowing that the community isn’t going to step up to the plate and do what is actually their civic responsibility, which is to cooperate with law enforcement.”
The victim from the Memorial Day shooting was last reported to be in critical condition. So far, no other information regarding the shooting, including a description of an alleged gunman, has been release