Crime leaving its mark on north Columbia neighborhood

Quail Drive in north Columbia is once again quiet, but it was a different scene around 8 on Thursday night as police arrested Vincent Dawson.

Authorities said that after a traffic stop on Quail, Dawson fired a shot. Authorities said it’s unclear if Dawson meant to shoot at the officers or if it was just an accident.

Police arrested Dawson after a short standoff when he locked himself in his house.

Dawson has been charged with armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest.

“I think the problem isn’t the street. I think the problem is the landlords that rent to the crap,” Kerby Mitchell said.

Mitchell has been renting apartments on Quail Drive for decades. He owns more than 30 apartments up and down the street. He said Quail Drive’s reputation doesn’t help fill his units.

“It makes it tougher. A lot of people when they call and you tell them where it’s at — ‘Well, we don’t want to live there, it’s crime,'” Mitchell said.

Just since November, the neighborhood has seen one homicide, several shootings, an aggravated assault and two people have been robbed.

“It seems to settle down for a few months and then it seems to pick up steam,” Mitchell said.

To keep officers closer to some of the crime “hot spots” in Columbia, the police department has a few plans. One of those plans is to open a substation, in a townhome, on Aztec Boulevard in northeast Columbia. The lease would allow CPD to operate in a unit for $300 a month, beginning in July, pending city council approval.

“This will provide us an outpost, if you will, to write reports, to have a police presence on the east side, to have a better response time for anything that occurs on the east side,” Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala told ABC 17 News Friday evening.

Columbia has also spent about $500,000 to buy eight acres off Rangeline Street and International Drive – the city’s Second Ward – for a new police station. However, more officers might be hard to come by – the department is short around 50 officers and there’s no word if officials will hire any more.

Skala said he supported the decision for a substation in the Second Ward, but wanted a better presence in northeast Columbia, as well. His first idea was a spot at St. Charles Road and Interstate 70, but city staff came back with a more affordable option in the Indian Hills subdvision.

Skala emphasized that he didn’t feel Wynwood Townhouses, or Indian Hills, had a problem with crime, but that the price of the location made it a good fit.

“Using the limited resources that we have, in some of these areas that are under served, I think the better off everyone is going to be,” Skala said.

“Everybody works and wants to come home and have a safe place to live. They’re interested in what Joe Blow is doing. They want to get home and rest and not have this crap happen,” Mitchell said.

The city is set to vote on the police substation in June and the new police station is expected to open in about two years. The lease for the northeast substation would start on July 1, if approved.