News-Record.com

HIGH POINT - After two homicides and a brutal robbery in the past month, High Point police are organizing a violent-crime response meeting to ask residents for help and to help them organize.

The meeting will take place at 6 tonight at the High Point Police Department's training room at 1009 Leonard Ave.

The High Point Community Against Violence is co-sponsoring the event. The group has helped residents organize against crime for a decade. The group's president, Gretta Bush, said community meetings are most needed when violent crimes happen in a cluster.

"When they happen close together like this, there's definitely a need," Bush said. "We try to work with the police to help people be more proactive in their neighborhoods. They can give police details they might have seen, they can organize their own community watches - just things to let people know they don't have to be scared."

The meeting comes after police found 16-year-old Travis McConnell dead, face-down in a ditch near Hines Street Saturday morning. McConnell had been severely beaten and his death was ruled a homicide. No arrests had been made Wednesday.

On July 25 Arthur William Mastin Jr., 26, of Pleasant Garden was found in his car on Oberlin Drive, dead of a gunshot wound. Police later arrested Cameron Delaney Bridges, 18, of 816 Rosecrest Drive in High Point. He remains in the Guilford County jail in High Point without bond on a first-degree murder charge.

Two days later, Wang Xing, 39, was robbed and badly beaten after delivering a food order at the Raintree Apartments on Northpoint Avenue. Police found Xing at the back of his restaurant, the Golden Dragon at 274 Eastchester Drive. No one has been arrested.

On Tuesday, the group will help officers canvass the areas of recent incidents with information fliers. Bush said she hopes someone with information on the Xing beating and the McConnell homicide will come forward.

"The police are there to help us, but they can't be everywhere all the time," Bush said. "But we can be their eyes and ears."

Lt. Gordon Stallings leads High Point's violent crimes unit. He said the meeting is aimed at residents and at the people who commit violent crimes.

"We want to let the people and the victims' families know what level of importance these things are, that law enforcement and the community are deeply involved," Stallings said. "And it also sends the message that we don't tolerate violence in High Point."

Contact Joe Killian at 883-4422, Ext. 228, or jkillian@news-record.com