devote their lives to the
community.
♪
From
KPRC. 2 this is Houston
newsmakers with khambrel
Marshall.
It was a tragic killing 2 men
enjoying dinner in the outside
area. The grotto restaurant
shot and killed while being
robbed. The outcry was
immediate because one of the
men was an off-duty New Orleans
police officer even more
outcry.
>> After arrests were made of 2
men who are out on bond for
previous charges at the time of their arrests.
their arrests.
Crime. Stoppers of Houston has
been a leading advocate for
bail reform that would keep
certain accused criminals
behind bars and avoid the tragedy that took place in the
tragedy that took place in the
grotto restaurant a week or so
ago Ryan Newman karius is the
CEO of crime stoppers of
Houston. Great to see you
again.
How frustrating is it for you when you see this sort of thing
when you see this sort of thing
go people who are out on bond
committing deadly crimes.
It is so unbelievably
frustrating and look, we have
to be the voice of the
community. We have to be the
voice of victims. >> We have to be on the side
>> We have to be on the side
of what’s right. As you and I
have been
talking about and these types
of crimes do not have to
happen. We understand that there are many things in the
there are many things in the
system that need to be
discussed and fixed and there
have been many efforts to fix
them, especially on.
>> The
misdemeanor side. But when you’re dealing with them with
you’re dealing with them with
the most violent repeat
defendants, people who will
Rob you rape you and kill you.
We can’t be as a practice letting them out over and over
letting them out over and over
and over again. So there’s
been some.
>> Progress made has are not
enough on the talk about that
and how much more needs to be
done. So legislation was just hopefully and will go into
hopefully and will go into
effect within 90 days of Damon
Allen act. And we worked very
h*** o* this legislation.
We didn’t get everything we
wanted. But we got a lot.
And basically what it says is
when you’re dealing with the
most violent offenders. You can’t give a PR bond to get
can’t give a PR bond to get
out of jail free card. And I
mean, that’s should be common
sense for all. But it’s not.
And we’re dealing with murderers rapists and people
murderers rapists and people
who Rob aggravated robberies.
It also says that at this point
judges have to have history.
And I can’t imagine that that’s
something that anyone would
argue. We need to know the
criminal history of the
defending. We need to know the bond history of the defendant
bond history of the defendant
that they’ve got to sign off on
that type of documentation and
all of that should be public.
And I think that’s a fair thing
for people to want to see an at and ask about have access to
and ask about have access to
this. Talk about one of the
accused grado 19 years old.
A long rap This is one of
the men for offenses in the
past 6 months, including 2
felonies
in both of accused of multiple
bonds, both of the accused
multiple bonds able to
allegedly get out and commit
more crimes and they’ve been in
your eyesight.
>> Before, you know, one of
them specifically Jenkins.
We actually world searching for
him back in March in crime,
stoppers apprehended him of law
enforcement pay to reward on him and then of course he’s
him and then of course he’s
back out on the streets, unable
to kill officer Briscoe and
Mister coffee. And it’s it’s tragic. One. The grotto.
tragic. One. The grotto.
And the middle of the afternoon
on our busiest Street right
there by a traffic like where
people are sitting in traffic.
You think of the people in the
restaurant. You think of the
wait staff. You think of
everybody around you when you think of these 2 individuals
think of these 2 individuals
who literally paid the for bail
reform. I an ideology that is
not translating well in society
to to owner of the company that owns the grotto stepped up to
owns the grotto stepped up to
boost the award reward for
information leading
to arrest. How big of a factor
was that the how much does it
help you as much as it helps raise the awareness really
raise the awareness really
about what you’re doing.
It kind of does both at the
same time. And that’s exactly
right. It does both at the same
time. I have to say what’s
really interesting over the
last 3 years. The number of
tipsters that call and say, look, we actually don’t want
look, we actually don’t want
the reward which want to give
you the information is
going up and I love that the
community is becoming
collectively, public safety minded. We’re all saying we
minded. We’re all saying we
cannot continue this way.
We cannot whatever we can do to
help we will help now in
somebody like Tilman Fertitta
steps in and offer $60,000 to ground out. Our were 200,000.
ground out. Our were 200,000.
It’s huge. It’s huge in the
community here is tipsters hear
that and obviously the calls
went up
right away.
>> Your organization has
evolved through the years. You become more of an activist
You become more of an activist
organization, quite frankly,
because you have had to
the challenge of doing that stepping out of roll into the
stepping out of roll into the
new role of doing what quote
is, right. Yeah, it’s been very
important. You know, we’re on
the forefront of public safety.
So when we needed to be in the
school’s kindergarten through
12th grade. We said we need to
be there. We need to make sure kids do not go from the cradle
kids do not go from the cradle
to prison pipeline. We have to
be offering free education.
We have to be out in the
community. And when this issue
of bail reform started to apply in felony cases where we’re
in felony cases where we’re
letting people you know, get
out of jail free card very,
very low bonds. You know, we’re
not following up
with a committed a crime bond nothing’s happening to them.
nothing’s happening to them.
We we had to step into this
role. People call it political
people have been upset with us.
But at the end of the day, it’s
not about politics to us.
It’s about public safety
officer per school should not have been shot in the middle of
have been shot in the middle of
the afternoon and one of our
busiest parts of town visiting
from New Orleans. That should
not be our city.
Absolutely not. >> And it was by allegedly by
>> And it was by allegedly by
someone who had been not
allegedly he’d been out on bond
before. And so that could have
not happened had he and this is
the biggest part for me. Advocates for bond reform are
Advocates for bond reform are
looking singularly at the
criminal. You know, we’ve got
to be giving them a fierce shot
a fair shot.
Second, chances. >> We have not done Jenkins
>> We have not done Jenkins
or Jackson any favors because
now at 1921 years old. They
face possibly the death penalty
or life in prison without
parole. What favors did we even
do for them. You know, as a
society, as a community.
We’ve got us. We’ve got a look
at everyone’s best interest,
including those have a
propensity to commit violent
crime. I’m going to make sure
have information on my Web site so people can get to know where
so people can get to know where
you are sick and find out
everything
about you are, you know, I’m
the The founder of the right to
Mike Harris fan club. So I know
all
that so but I want everybody to Thank you for being here.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for what you do.
Stopping the bad guys and given
the good guys, the opportunity