Muncie in 150 by Rick Yencer

Author:Rick Yencer [Yencer, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503590168
Publisher: Xlibris US
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

DODGE CITY

Twenty years ago, dozens of people stood around as Muncie basketball star Sam Drummer was gunned down in the streets of Whitely.

His killer to this day still has seen not been brought to justice as that street code, as some Whitely residents say, is to never tell on another. Those same people say Whitely once resembled Dodge City as shootouts happened any given night in the late 20th Century.

Drummer, 36, was found in his car after a drug deal went south, according to Muncie police. As then police investigator Mike Engle said neighbors and friends talked to each other about the shooting, but not to police. The Indiana high school all-star and college standout at Georgia Tech never made it to professional play after he got into drug trouble playing with the Harlem Globetrotters.

“It is such a waste. We tried to do what we could for Sam, but there were just too many people pulling him in too many difference directions,” said Myron Dickerson, Drummer’s high school coach in a 1995 report by The Muncie Star. “Sam was a polite kid, a quiet kid, and there were just so many people who wanted a piece of him. They’re the ones who really ought to be sick about this whole thing.”

Muncie youth activist Carl Malone knew Drummer and remembered how tragic the death was to family and friends.Even more tragic was that nobody ever came forward with evidence about the shooter.

“Police have a job to do,” said Malone,” But the community also has a responsibility to report crime/”

He referred to a recent case of two teenagers shooting another teenager and a seven-year-old boy in his neighborhood of Industry. Details of the shooting by victims and others produced suspects and arrests.

Malone, also president of the Muncie Park and Recreation Board, believed people should speak out when crime was committed in their neighborhood and also help youth get education and training to find opportunity in life.

That remains the big issue in black neighborhoods that see more violence, and incarceration, lower income, and little opportunity.

Malone spends his time helping youth at Industry’s Unity Center that is a former public school that serves as a community center and home to an inner city charter school.

Yolanda Taylor runs the center and sees about 150 kids pass through the doors any given day in the summer. While Malone took boys to the Boy Scouts camp south of Muncie, others were teaching girls about dance and working on reading and math skills.

“We don’t have a budget,” said Malone, about the center that depends on donation and grants.

It’s important to keep youth busy with education and recreation as Malone, a U.S. Army veteran, and former Ball Corp. quality control director, also teaches discipline, respect and responsibility among youth.

Another tragedy involving the black community was the recent arrest of the local NAACP president for dealing cocaine.

Timothy W. Miles, 49, also an assistant director for Muncie Indiana Transportation Corp., was accused of selling cocaine repeatedly to a police confidential informant, once in a city park.

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