Wednesday, February 5, 2003
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Wednesday, February 5, 2003 |
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County drug cops rescue F'ville neighborhood By JOHN MUNFORD
Arnetta Askew and Hazel Askew knew exactly what was going on at 155 Booker St. in Fayetteville. Cars came and went at all hours of the night, and there was plenty of racket in the early morning hours. Arnetta and Hazel who have lived there over 40 years each were sure drug activity was taking place, right across the street from their homes. They would call Fayetteville police to no avail. Arnetta remembered one party at 155 Booker with 15 to 20 "cars and folk" there. She called city police and before the law arrived, the party had dispersed. "They had a scanner in there or something," Arnetta said. "It's been going on like this a long time ... We got tired of calling." "We began to think they didn't care about this neighborhood and as long as they're not bothering people in the neighborhood, nobody cares," Hazel said. The residents at 155 Booker "were nice" and kept to themselves, Arnetta added. Except for the noise, that is. "You could hear them fussing wherever you were," Arnetta said. The neighbors' suspicions were proven right recently when the Drug Task Force of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department swooped in and arrested 19 people for possession of cocaine, including persons charged with selling cocaine from the residence. Several of the arrests were made at another residence down the street: 200 Booker St. The bust was the result of a three-month investigation that began when the county sheriff's department received several complaints of drug activity in the neighborhood, according to a spokesperson. The drug activity was street-level only and not of a trafficking nature, officials said. The location is less than a tenth of a mile from East Fayette Elementary School. Children going to school must pass the alleged drug-selling locations to get to school on Booker Avenue. For the Askew families, the bust was a relief. They had called police so often to report drug activity in the area that they began to wonder if their complaints were being heard. "We'd give them (the police) tag numbers ... until they got smart and started backing the cars in," Hazel Askew said. "... I was just afraid something bad was going to happen, that someone was going to die of a drug overdose." After the arrests, things have calmed down and a person who was cleaning up 155 Booker Friday afternoon said he'd like to see the location become the home of a drug treatment facility. The sheriff's department is considering filing paperwork to have the home condemned under drug forfeiture laws. As for the Askews, they're enjoying the peace and quiet. "We're able to go to sleep now," Arnetta Askew said.
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