KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas: Awareness Raised After Boy Killed Outside Vacant Home

(KATV) Little Rock - Early Tuesday morning 14-year old Decree Thomas was gunned down near an abandoned home off Booker Street. His family and community are stepping up saying the neighborhoods need to be safer.

Police do not have a suspect and few details are being released, but community members want this to bring the serious reality of the problem with abandoned homes in communities to the forefront.

Driving through Midtown, some neighborhoods that once thrived now have more abandoned homes than those occupied.

Shot multiple times, 14-year-old Decree Thomas took his last breath outside this vacant home, his grandfather Rufus Cyrus doesn't want his death to be in vain. He says, "I just wish there was some kind of way we could stop the violence, it's madness that's what it is."  

City Board member Ken Richardson explains, "This unfortunate is the scene of a crime that's symbolic of what we have in our community; we have too many boarded up homes. They become magnets for criminal activity; unfortunately a young man lost his life."

According to the City of Little Rock, it cost more than $3,500 to demolish a small home, that's tax payer money, but they do put a lean on it, in hopes for the slim chance the homeowner will pay.

Daryl Swinton with Better Community Development says, "I would say there's over 100-homes, vacant abandoned homes in the Midtown area.

Richardson works closely with Swinton at the faith based non-profit Better Community Development. They purchase abandoned homes, partner with the city to demolish them work with a bank to finance the construction.

Swinton adds, "You just can't tear down every home within the community, but each home that's left up it becomes a hazard."

Midtown has a stigma for being a location for low income families, but they're changing that one house at a time to attract diversity and drive out crime.

Swinton concludes, "We've built over 50-new homes in the Midtown area. It's just going to take work, time, money and effort to do it."

Cyrus wants justice to be served, but he's grateful for the efforts to curve crime.

The 50-homes Better Community Development has constructed since 2000 does not include the homes they've renovated.

For more information on helping or how to qualify for a BCD home, click on the link under the picture.

For a complete story by Channel Seven on Decree Thomas, click on the link under the picture.