Kalamazoo’s homicide victims of 2020 remembered
Updated Jan 04, 2021;
Posted Jan 01, 2021
(Top from left) Royalty Houston-Hooper, McKenna Dutkiewicz, Carmen Hughes, Londrell Cook, Cornelius Fredricks and Dondreal Watkins. (Bottom from left) DeVante Coleman, Brandon Kelley, Michael Clopton III, Rachel Curl, Victor Davis and Robert James Richardson Jr.
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There were more than 70
non-fatal shootings and 13 homicides due to gun violence within Kalamazoo city limits in 2020. Overall, there were 14 homicides in Kalamazoo: three in Portage, two in Kalamazoo Township, one in Oshtemo Township and one in Richland Township, bringing the countywide homicide count to 21.
The total surpasses the previous century mark of 20 homicides in 2016. That year, 11 of the 20 deaths occurred during two mass killings one in February when Uber driver Jason Dalton shot and killed six people and wounded two others, and one in June when Charles Pickett Jr. drove his truck into a group of
Inspired by Detroit’s sleeping bag coat, retired coach champions effort to help Kalamazoo’s homeless
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Posted Dec 31, 2020
Chamique Perry and David Quinn received sleeping bag coats on Dec. 23 when Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety assisted Dick Shilts in distributing 18 coats. (Photo Courtesy of Dick Shilts)
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KALAMAZOO, MI Dick Shilts is having trouble falling back asleep. In the last four months, he has spent time with the homeless community in Kalamazoo. He met people who are sleeping in trucks, abandoned buildings and even inside tree trunks.
In the 46 years that Shilts spent as a college basketball coach at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, there’s no doubt he’s had sleepless nights before.
Art Beat with Tracy Kleinstecker
After a journey through different art forms, Klinesteker found her passion in pastels. She explores a wide range of styles within the medium, from the exquisite detail of realism to the bright splashes of the abstract.
Klinesteker found her calling in 2012 when she took a class in pastel painting at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA).(P) “It was a beginning class,” Klinesteker says. “I walked in and (the instructor) had three or four tables laid out with pastels on all of them, and the colors just hit me in the face! And the feeling of using the pastel on the paper and the color! and I absolutely fell in love with the medium.”
(Photo courtesy of Jeana Gondek)
According to the report, 20-year-old JaâShaun Markee Jones was charged in Kalamazoo County District Court on Tuesday. Jones is already in jail for an attempted murder charge from an incident that occurred the same night Curl was killed.
Curl, 20, originally from Benton Harbor, was a college student attending Kalamazoo Valley Community College. In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 17, police responded to the 4200 block of Hidden Hills Drive on a report of shots fired.
Upon arrival, officers found Curl suffering from a gunshot wound. She was transported to Bronson Methodist Hospital, where she later died.
Battle Creek Man Charged In A Fatal Double Shooting
A Battle Creek man already jailed for attempted murder has now been charged in the death of a Kalamazoo college student.
A Battle Creek man already in jail on an attempted murder charge has now been charged in the shooting death of Kalamazoo Valley Community College student Rachel Curl. Ja’Shaun Markee Jones, a 20-year-old from Battle Creek, had an amended charge of open murder added earlier this week in Kalamazoo County District Court, according to MLive.
Jones is alleged to have shot 20-year-old Rachel Curl at the Hidden Hills apartment complex, in the 4200 block of Hidden Hills Drive not far from the campus of Western Michigan University, on October 17. Curl was a native of Benton Harbor. Curl died later that morning at Bronson Methodist Hospital.