Ceasefire Plan Nets 4 Suspects

Last week, the Columbia Police Department and several law enforcement agencies began a “Ceasefire Initiative,” including a heat list with about 100 people police are targeting.Five days into the initiative, police say four of those suspects have been caught.One man whose home was caught in crossfire says even though police are making some progress, he wants to see more arrests.”Where people actually see that they’re getting some of those guns off the streets, and some of the people that are responsible for doing all the shootings off the streets,” said Mike Eye. His house was hit by two stray bullets when two cars were shooting at each other along Blue Ridge Road.Columbia police say they have been making some arrests since the initiative was announced.”Some good arrests over the past few days,” said Sgt. Jill Schlude.One of those arrests was Allison Price, who was arrested for hiding a fugitive.Through saturated patrols and traffic stops, police have been able to target drugs since drugs are often tied to gangs and gun violence.Sgt. Schlude says officers arrested a felon in possession of a stolen gun. None of the those arrested within the last week have ties to the recent rash of shootings in the city, but Schlude says they may have ties to others involved.In order for officers to catch up with those people, Schlude tells ABC 17 News the department is smartening up.”We’re gathering all that intel and narrowing that list of people down,” said Schlude. “We’re really trying to make it more intelligence-driven and really going out and saying ‘Okay, here’s the goal, then here’s the target.'”Schlude says the ceasefire initiative is bigger than just added patrols. She says police are trying to take a different approach to catch the criminals and as of right now, they do not have a specific end date.