Editor’s note: This story is the first in a series on juvenile violent crime. Further stories will discuss the juvenile justice system and resources for youths.
On October 30, 2020, Camden Police Department responded a call at Carver Avenue and found Dayshawn Singleton, who had just turned 18, in a pool of his own blood. A Sony PlayStation was on and the introduction screen to “Madden 2020” played in the background. Officers noted the smell of marijuana in the air as Singleton struggled for air and fought for his life from a gunshot wound to his head.
Singleton’s killer was then-16-year-old Isaiah Smith, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Three years after Singleton’s death, two other incidents involving firearms and juveniles have claimed the lives of two others in Camden.
Keaton Arnold, 18; Tyrese Henry, 23; Carlton Henry, 22; Zykeial Gulley, 22, and Andretti Austin, 26, along with four other juveniles allegedly hatched a plan to rob a household in September of 2022.
While a local couple was at home with their 2-year-old child, the group approached their back door and ordered them at gunpoint to get on the ground.
What came next was a hail of gunfire as 36 rounds were fired at the house, one of which struck the male homeowner and another hitting Austin in the back, killing him.
EMS arrived to find Austin dead on the scene.
The other suspects would later claim that Tyrese Henry and Austin were both under the influence of Xanax at the time of the crime.
In February of 2023, Quintin Miller, 16, and two other minors were walking home after school on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, when Dquaveus Benton and three juveniles exited a vehicle.
When five shots from a .44 had rang out, Miller fell instantly and his friend had been shot in the foot. By the time EMS arrived, Miller had passed away in the yard of a residential home, Camden’s latest teenage victim of gun violence.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there were an estimated 1,780 youth victims of homicide in 2020 — 30% more than in 2019 and 46% more than 2013, the year with the fewest youth victims.
According to information from the Arkansas Crime Information Center, 20 juveniles were arrested for murder in Arkansas in 2021, down from 25 in the year 2020, with the majority of them being male. All three murders in Camden involved males as both alleged shooters and victims.
Camden Police Chief Boyd Woody spoke recently at the Camden Lions club and stated that while Camden is still relatively safe, the number of murders and shootings, both of and committed by juveniles is increasing.
“We’ve always had crime, but the ones they’re committing now are a lot more serious than what we’ve seen in the past. Our homicide this year involved four kids,” Woody said.
Trying to address the issue of juvenile violence comes with its own challenges.
“So when you’re under the age of 18, it’s a whole different ballpark when it comes to law enforcement because we really, we don’t have as much control over a juvenile as we do an adult. So if we make an arrest on juvenile, they go straight to the juvenile system. It really doesn’t involve the police department,” Woody said.
And guns are making what could be childish roughhousing deadly.
“The research that we’ve done, from 2018 to 2022, between the ages of one to 19, the leading cause of their death is gun violence and that is above car wrecks or anything else that involves the death of a child right now,” he said.
Woody also said the violence isn’t isolated to Camden.
“It’s not just here; it’s increasing everywhere. There was an incident this weekend where in Stamps which is not far from here, they had a homicide,” he said.
Woody was referring to a shooting in Waldo, in which 18-year-old Jaquarious D. Easter of Waldo was shot and later died from his injuries, while a 16-year-old from East Camden was injured and sent to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
He also stated that in the majority of Camden’s teen shootings, the firearms were stolen.
“That’s what we have found in the last few cases where we did recover firearms, that they were stolen. As a matter of fact, I think that’s the case in the (Miller) homicide case we have pending right now,” he said.
Woody said the uptick in violent crime started during the COVID pandemic of 2020, when kids were removed from school and spent more time at home.
“I think when the kids were not allowed to go to school and they were allowed to hang out all day, along with some poor parenting, is where I think we’re at right now, ” Woody said.