Toledo bureaucrats' ''solutions'' not working to prevent terrible crimes

3:20pm Wednesday, January 14, 2004

January 13, 2004
Toledo Blade

Officials urge more security for carryouts

City offering a reward for clues in death of N. Toledo store clerk

Two days after a North Toledo carryout worker was killed during a robbery, city officials yesterday urged small businesses to improve their security measures, with Mayor Jack Ford saying he may use loans or grants to help pay for the upgrades.

City officials called Misada Shalan's murder inside Tamara's Carryout senseless, brutal, and vicious and offered a $5,000 reward - matched by a local carryout owner - for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers.

Mrs. Shalan and her husband, Fuad, were sitting behind the counter in the carryout when two masked men walked in and fired three to five shots, Detective Vince Mauro said.

"They came in, said nothing, and started shooting," he said.

One of the bullets hit the 47-year-old woman in the head, killing her instantly. Mr. Shalan, who suffered two grazing-type injuries, asked the men to stop shooting and to take what they wanted. They stopped firing and one of them demanded money, the detective said.

Mr. Shalan gave the men money from the register and they fled. Mr. Shalan then turned and saw his wife.

Investigators aren't sure how much money the men took, but Tarek Shalan said it might have been less than $100 - possibly as little as $30 to $50.

"It was not even worth it," Tarek said outside his family's West Toledo home. "She was somebody's mother."

"There was no reason in the world to kill this woman," police Chief Mike Navarre said. "This was a very heinous crime."

The lack of surveillance video and little evidence is making it tough for detectives to learn who shot and killed Mrs. Shalan, who decided several months ago to work by her husband's side part time at Tamara's, which is on Columbus Street at Erie Street.

Chief Navarre said businesses should invest in surveillance equipment inside and outside their establishments. Such systems could cost a few thousand dollars, he said.

"I want to appeal to small businesses to do more with silent alarms," City Councilman Wilma Brown said.

"This is where the community should stand up," said Councilman Michael Ashford. "If this continues, people will feel uncomfortable operating [businesses] especially where services are needed."

Story edited for space - click here to read the entire story.

Commentary by Chad D. Baus:
Councilman Ashford thinks the community should "stand up."

Councilman Brown wants to install silent alarms.

Mayor Ford wants to help businesses to get small business loans so they can buy better security measures.

Chief Navarre wants businesses to invest in more cameras (admittedly so he can have an easier time mopping up the blood and bad P.R. by tracking down the perp).

But the sad truth is, NONE of these "solutions" would have prevented this crime. And many of the same people who claim to have new "solutions" have stood in opposition to something that truly would save lives in that city - legalized self-defense.

During the legislative battles over HB274 in 2002, Mayor Ford wrote a letter to Gov. Taft, urging him to veto that concealed carry bill, stating "I remain strongly against any law that would allow a large number of new weapons on the streets of our city,

One year ago, Mayor Ford cast a tie-breaking vote to extend Toledo's ban on the sale of inexpensive handguns. Only one person had been charged under the law since 2000.

Chief Navarre has repeatedly fretted in media stories that a concealed-carry law will result in increased suicides, homicides, and accidental shootings.

In the wake of the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling that open carry was an acceptable method of exercising our "fundamental individual right" to bear arms for self-defense in Ohio, Navarre explained that persons doing so in Toledo would be arrested, under a Toledo municipal law which bans public possession of a firearm.

The City of Toledo has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the state, and it shows in the headlines, and on the obituary pages.

Persons wishing to inform these elected leaders on the facts may contact Toledo City Council by email, or by calling 419-245-1050.
Mayor Jack Ford can be reached by email, or by calling 419-936-2020.

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