Cincinnati Police homicide detective Jennifer Mitsch has a message for the those who intimidate and threaten murder witnesses: You have met your match.
Mitsch, a 10-year homicide investigator, is so fed up with threats against murder witnesses that she is spearheading a new program to support those who come forward to talk to the police and testify at trial.
The program is called CCROW and stands for Cincinnati Citizens Respecting Our Witnesses. It is loosely named for Kelsie Crow, the 17-year-old Purcell-Marian soccer player gunned down in a barrage of gunfire six months ago. Crow was killed outside a Sweet 16 birthday party at the Melrose YMCA in Walnut Hills on April 4. Two other teens were also shot, but survived those injuries.
More than 100 people — teenagers, adults and residents — witnessed the shooting. But no one has
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"I think the installment of the marker just gave people another outlet, ' ' said Rick Hill, Kelsie 's coach at Kolping. "I don 't think it really puts closure on anything."
Program just starting
Mitsch had the kernel of the idea and had started doing research on the witness support program well before the Crow killing, but the teen 's death spotlighted the intimidation issue and catapulted the program forward, said Mitsch 's boss, homicide Lt. Dave Johnston.
"Testifying is uncomfortable. It 's tense. There is a just a lot of tension of sitting in the same room, ' ' with a suspect, Mitsch said.
Then add to that a culture of guns, gangs and the drug trade where retaliation and payback is part of the business model.
Often Mitsch and Johnston said a suspect 's family members or friends will show up at a trial en mass and intimidate witnesses. Sometimes they take photos in the hallways or in the courtroom and post them to social media sites or text others back in the neighborhood labeling a witness as a snitch.
Instead, Mitsch said: "We want to get support in there and create our own entourage and keep it in