Task Force to Offer Plan By June : Compton Targets Drugs, Killings

It was a perfect morning for sleeping in on Thursday. Heavy clouds softened the early sunlight and a soothing drizzle pecked the rooftops along Dwight Avenue. But for the drone of an occasional passing car, the neighborhood was quiet. Then seven police cars slid into place.

Nineteen Compton police officers, some carrying shotguns, bolted into the rain, split into teams and hurriedly converged on two stucco houses roughly a block apart. The tension was over in a matter of seconds.

Officers led by Detective Preston Harris entered the first house shortly after 7 a.m., armed with two arrest warrants. They found only the suspects’ parents. But at a second house nearby, other investigators found and handcuffed a sleepy-looking Sharhon Charles Wynne, 17. (Because Wynne is a juvenile, police declined to confirm his identity.)

Wynne was arrested and held without bail on suspicion of murdering Long Beach resident Billy Joe Carter, 32. On Dec. 10, Carter had pulled his 1968 Oldsmobile into an alley off Dwight and sat, engine idling, as several men approached. One of them suddenly raised an M-1 rifle and fired into the car window, police said.

Clutching Dollar Bills

The round that struck Carter was powerful enough to enter his left shoulder, cut through his body and continue out the passenger door. He slumped dead against the steering wheel, clutching six dollar bills in one hand, as the others fled.

Lt. Jim Fette, homicide investigation coordinator, said Thursday that the killing stemmed from a dispute over drugs--a not uncommon occurance in Compton, where the manufacture and sale of “rock” cocaine is often described as the city’s most serious crime problem. Rock cocaine is a solid form of cocaine that is smoked in a pipe.

Such drug dealings are thought to have played a role in most of the 61 homicides recorded in Compton last year, an astounding number considering that only five more killings took place in Long Beach although that city has four times the population.

“If crime is anywhere, it’s serious,” Mayor Walter R. Tucker said. “And the epidemic of cocaine all over the State of California exacerbates the problem.”

Compton officials say crime in their city has become especially frustrating because it continues to damage the new image they are working to build. So, last month, the City Council called for the formation of a nine-member Task Force on Crime, to be led by Councilman Floyd A. James.

Better Focus Sought

Paul H. Richards, the council’s chief of staff, said the group’s primary goal will be to better focus law enforcement efforts and “make sure citizens are aware” of the city’s renewed commitment.

“It’s designed to be something different than a normal committee or citizens’ group,” Richards said. For one thing, it will be made up of decision makers, not just advisers, from the Police Department, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, the school system and various community organizations. Members are expected to be named next month.

The group will conduct periodic citizen forums, Richards said. But before its term expires in June, the task force will also be expected to come up with workable ways that drug dealing and other crimes might be better battled, whether more police officers, tougher prosecutors or firmer judges are needed.

“Compton wants to set a new standard,” Richards said. “Like every city, (it) has a problem with crime. The situation is obviously better in some communities.” But while officials aren’t fond of calling attention to the problem for fear that sorely needed businesses and developers will be scared away, neither are they “trying to gloss over anything . . . They’re trying to take a hard-hitting approach.”

Tucker said Compton citizens will also be called on to do their share. “We need all sorts of help there,” he said. “You can’t solve crime without somebody volunteering and telling you something. We want to have it so that people will feel they’re not threatened when they call in” with information for police.

Valuable Aid

Just that kind of citizen aid, in fact, proved valuable in the police investigation of Carter’s slaying.

Detective Harris said the case had progressed slowly until he received an anonymous letter, naming names and suggesting motives. Carter had shortchanged his killer in a previous drug deal, according to the writer, who only signed the letter “A Concerned Citizen.”

“I’m sorry that I cannot come forward,” the writer explained, “but . . . I don’t want to be gunned down.”

After Thursday’s raid, Harris said an arrest warrant would also be served on Vincent Jeffrey Norwood, a 20-year-old Compton resident who was recently jailed in an unrelated robbery case. And Harris said that warrants on suspicion of murder remain to be served on Kevin Undre Dykes, 24, and his sister Katrina Denise Dykes, 25.