FORT PIERCE — Shelitta Woods calls the past six months “miserable.”

“You got to understand, it’d been like 13, 14 years before I had another child,” Woods said. “It was just me and Lil’ Bo, just me and Lil’ Bo, everywhere I go, me and Lil’ Bo.”

Woods’ 16-year-old son, Torenda “Lil’ Bo” Youngblood Jr., was fatally shot at his bus stop March 9, two days after Demetrius Wells, 18, sustained fatal wounds in a drive-by shooting. Two men also were hit by gunfire during separate shootings between the homicides.

No arrests have been made in the Wells and Youngblood slayings during the half year since, though police Sgt. Dennis McWilliams said the cases remain “very fresh in our minds as detectives.”

“We’ve had a number of names that have been brought up to us, but we don’t have enough information to make an arrest yet,” McWilliams said.

Police Chief Sean Baldwin said the Wells and Youngblood killings “have a connection to gang activity,” though Woods said her son wasn’t a gang member. Wells’ family members could not be reached, but at the time said he wasn’t part of a gang.

Shortly after the killings, police and officials publicized a host of initiatives targeting gangs and related violence, such as gun buy backs, community forums, public awareness efforts and several arrests, that Baldwin this week said “combined have been extremely successful.”

“Overall, in the first seven months of 2009, we’ve reduced our violent crime in Fort Pierce by over 20 percent compared to last year,” Baldwin said. “That is just absolutely incredible in terms of success.”

Days after the shootings, Baldwin detailed plans involving many segments of the community to stop the violence called Operation Ceasefire.

Police and community leaders hand-delivered more than 100 letters to parents of alleged juvenile gang members “asking them to get involved in their kids’ lives and get them away from these gangs,” Baldwin said.

Less than two weeks after the Wells and Youngblood homicides, police detailed a host of arrests of people identified as gang members or linked to a gang.

The Rev. Toby Philpart, pastor at New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, said the wide-ranging efforts “definitely attributed to a reduction of violent crime.”

“I think it helped jump-start people in the community who may have not had the opportunity or enough encouragement to do things behind the scenes,” he said. “The end result is we had a pretty good summer in Fort Pierce as it relates to crime.”

In June, state and local officials announced six alleged Zoe Pound gang leaders were facing racketeering and conspiracy charges.

“Taking down these particular six members of the Zoe Pound gang is going to have a tremendous impact on the safety and security of the streets of Fort Pierce,” Baldwin said at the time. “We’re going to continue to chase these violent gang members down and put them in prison for life.”

Baldwin said the initiatives will continue.

“The residents of Fort Pierce will see even more arrests here in the future of gang members and we’re not going to stop until we’ve got the problem under control,” he said.

Meanwhile, Woods, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, says she misses her son, a sophomore at Fort Pierce Westwood High School. She said Torenda Youngblood Jr. had a daughter — Toreyana Rena’ Youngblood — on the way with a 17-year-old girl. The plan was for Torenda Youngblood Jr. to enlist in the U.S. Army and the child’s mother to enter the U.S. Air Force.

“Me and her momma was going to be the ones to stay at home and keep the kid while they go and pursue their career,” Woods said.

Woods suspects people know more than they’re saying, and if she could ask the shooter one question she’d ask why.

“What could provoke you to want to take his life?” she said.

A 2006 Mazda believed to be linked to the Wells slaying was recovered on Metzger Road days after his death. The vehicle smelled of gas and smoke and it appeared someone tried to burn it.

McWilliams said dozens of people have been interviewed in connection with the cases and encouraged anyone with information to call Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS (8477).

“We are at the point in these two investigations where we need witnesses,” McWilliams said. “We need people to come forward, we need people to say, this is what I saw or this is what this person told me.”

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

Tags: arrest, bui, chief, child, church, communication, Crime, death, detective, fatal, fatality, gang, gangs, girl, gun, guns, homicide, homicides, informant, investigation, kids, missing, mother, name, parents, pastor, police, prison, roads, safety, saw, Schools, security, shooting, shot, slaying, woods

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