With about four months left, the Tigerland area has experienced four homicides in 2012, compared to none in 2011.
Most recently, officers arrested 19-year-old Justin Harrison on Saturday morning in the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Roger Watkins, according to Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman Cpl. L’Jean McKneely.
Harrison, of 4636 Alvin Dark Ave., is accused of stabbing Watkins with a “knife-like cutting object” as they argued over a woman outside the Camelot Apartments on Jim Taylor Drive where Watkins lived. Neither were University students.
Tigerland’s subzone — the smallest geographic area BRPD maps crimes to — has been on the rise in violent crime in the last decade. The subzone includes parts of Brightside Drive and Nicholson Drive.
Tigerland is a cluster of five bars on Bob Pettit Boulevard — about 1.5 miles from the University — frequented by thousands of students who traverse the surrounding neighborhoods.
Statistics from 2011 show Tigerland’s subzone is about 48 percent more violent than in 2007 and 70 percent more violent than in 2001, which saw 40 violent offenses — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — as opposed to 2011’s 68 offenses.
Statistics for 2012 are not yet available.
On July 31, 18-year-old Philip Boudreaux was shot in his apartment by men posing as pizza delivery drivers. He died Aug. 3.
Police arrested Dedrick Brown, 24, of 4305 Chapeau Drive in Baker, and George Triplett, 22, of 413 Elmer St., in the case.
On April 15, multiple shotgun blasts left 29-year-old Brandon Harris, of 854 North Acadian East Thruway, dead in a driveway on the 1400 block of Sharlo Avenue. No arrests have been made in the case.
And on March 8, 22-year-old Gunner Williamson was found unconscious in a ditch on Bob Pettit Boulevard. He died March 12.
Though initial autopsy reports were inconclusive, the Coroner’s Office later ruled his death a homicide, citing signs of blunt-force trauma to his head. No arrests have been made.
As the area becomes more dangerous, students are beginning to worry.
Computer science junior Ethan Caraway said the violence has become an “escalating” concern for him.
Caraway, who lives in Tiger Plaza and rides his bike to school everyday, didn’t think violence was as bad in the area when he moved in.
“If it gets worse, I’ll probably stop riding my bike and maybe change living arrangements,” he said.
First year Southern University Law Center student Brennan Vazquez, who has only been living in his Tiger Plaza apartment for two months, said he hasn’t felt threatened in the area, but is more aware of his surroundings.
“It is pretty shocking that there’s been this many murders considering how many cops [are present in Tigerland],” Vazquez said.
The Advocate reported there have been 60 homicides in Baton Rouge so far this year compared to 64 homicides in 2011.
