Suspect in RI homicide identified

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By Times staff | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 | 8 comment(s)

TODAY: (Updated 12:20 p.m.)The man accused of killing a Rock Island woman early Monday has been identified as Steven Douglas Hill, age and address unavailable, according to the Rock Island County State’s Attorney’s office.Hill is expected to be charged with one count of first-degree murder, accused of stabbing and bludgeoning LaShaune Wright, 28, when he makes a first appearance in Rock Island County Circuit Court this afternoon.

Police found Wright fatally stabbed outside a house at 714 5th St., Rock Island, about 7 a.m. Monday. She was identified by the Rock Island County Coroner’s office this morning.

Hill was taken into custody Monday night, and the Rock Island Police Department is expected to make more information on the incident available later today. An autopsy on Wright will be done today in Rockford.

Police found Wright while responding to a call by a male at the residence reporting a woman wasn’t breathing.

EARLIER STORY

Suspect in RI slaying in custody

By Dustin Lemmon

Rock Island police have a suspect in custody in the death Monday of a 28-year-old woman whose body was found in a residence shortly after 7 a.m.

The incident breaks a four-month stretch in which no homicides were reported in the Quad-Cities. Law enforcement was kept busy investigating 11 homicides in 2006.

Authorities would not release the name of the victim nor give any details about the suspect late Monday pending the filing of charges. More information is expected to be released today.

Police were called Monday morning to a residence at 714 5th St., Rock Island, to find a dead woman with lacerations to her body. Capt. Scott Harris, of the Rock Island Police Department, said a male at the address had called police at 7:01 a.m. to report a woman at the residence was not breathing.

The first homicide in 2006 occurred Jan. 8 in Milan, Ill., when Nicholas Atwater, 34, of Rock Island, was shot to death around 2:30 a.m. in a driveway on West 4th Street. It was the first homicide in Milan in at least 20 years. The case remains unsolved.

The last homicide occurred Aug. 19 during a drive-by shooting at 130 E. 12th St., Davenport. Vincelina Howard, 19, was struck in the back of her neck, and four men were arrested. Two have been convicted at trial.

By the end of August, Rock Island had seen four shooting deaths — not including two from November 2005 — and Davenport had experienced two. Police also investigated a January homicide in rural Davenport at the Lake Canyada Mobile Home Court.

Local law enforcement officials said most of the cases were not related. Some involved drug deals gone wrong, and three were murder-suicides — two of which were cases of domestic violence.

But some were the result of family feuds, and the Howard death and some nonfatal shootings were reportedly cases of retaliation for other shootings.

According to testimony at the recent Howard murder trials, the shooting was in response to a nonfatal shooting that happened earlier in the day in Rock Island. The suspects reportedly were retaliating against Davenport residents for that incident, and the April 19 homicide of Andrell Hearn in Rock Island. Vincelina Howard was not the intended target, however.

Scott County Attorney Bill Davis said he was pleased that the shootings stopped after he and police moved quickly to arrest the four Rock Island suspects in Howard’s death.

“The police are to be commended for it,” he said, adding it’s difficult to prosecute a case that has to be investigated in such a short amount of time.

Davenport Police Chief Mike Bladel said the recent convictions in the Howard case proved his officers did a good job investigating her death but added that it’s challenging for police to prevent such crimes.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to prevent all traumas but hopefully we can reduce the probability of it,” he said.

Rock Island Police Chief John Wright noted that while the murders kept police busy, violent crime statistics in Rock Island were down from 2005 to 2006, with almost 200 fewer cases. Violent crimes include murder, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglaries, thefts and arson.

Wright thinks neighborhood involvement and the effort of police to confiscate guns on the street has helped stem the violence. He hopes those efforts continue to prevent homicides in 2007.

“We had an awful year when it came down to homicides,” Wright said. “I think our overall violent crime was lower than last year.”

(Times staff writers Sheena Dooley and John Willard contributed to this story.)

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

HOMICIDE VICTIMS IN 2006

Aug. 20 — Vincelina Howard, 19, of Davenport

July 25 — Michael M. Jones, 25, of East Moline, slain in Rock Island

July 22 — Michelle White, 23, of Bettendorf, slain in a murder-suicide

July 5 — Tristan J. Menzl, 24, of Davenport

June 15 — Charlene Cook, 68, of Rock Island, slain in a murder-suicide

May 6 — Brian Sinnott, 39, of Davenport, slain in a murder-suicide

April 19 — Andrell Hearn, 20, of Rock Island

April 2 — Kevin L. Horne, 30, of Rock Island, unsolved (suspect acquitted by jury)

March 26 — Mark S. Brown, 30, of Rock Island, no arrests

Jan. 13 — Kevin Mosier, 29, of rural Davenport

Jan. 8 — Nicholas Atwater, 34, of Rock Island, slain in Milan, Ill., no arrests

Note: Cases have resulted in an arrest or arrests unless otherwise noted.