[eerie music] [streetcar clattering on track] DET. JOE JEFFERSON: Homicide
here in New Orleans is not for everybody. You have your cases where
everything's firing on all cylinders. Or you have cases where you
can come up with nothing. We're dealing with
years and years of just high murder rates. DET. ROB BARRERE: Some cases are
very hard, from the beginning, to solve. It gets very daunting. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Probably going
on at least 100 murders a year. And seeing a lot of
tragedy, a lot of carnage. It's the open cases, the
ones you don't solve, that you think about. You think about those
years after they're gone. [music swells] [police radio chatter] [motor running] Nobody saw anything? Nobody probably heard anything. They heard shots. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Any cameras? Poor guy. [ambient music] NARRATOR: The victim is
31-year-old Jonathan Dotson, born and raised in New Orleans. He grew up in a
tight-knit family. He was a husband, and
father to a young son. He tore his door down,
definitely, to escape. Kicked it in? DETECTIVE: Yep. Then he kept banging at it. There's holes all in here. There's holes all in the studs. So my first casings are,
like, where you got one, is where the shooting starts. So they chased my victim. He came in over here, and
was trying to get away. And that's as far as he got. He's laying in a prone position. He's got bullet
holes in his back as he was trying to escape. NARRATOR: Jonathan was
shot over 15 times. Taking it one step at a time. DET. ROB BARRERE: I think people just
think sometimes that we're just these guys in shirts and
ties, just writing a bunch of nonsense in a notebook. But it's more than that. having to go tell
a mother, hey, you know, sorry to tell you
this, but you know, we found your son, it-- it affects us. [somber music] DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: We're going to
meet with some of the family members of my victim. We may learn something
more after talking to them about his activities. How are y'all? WOMAN: Fine.
DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Y'all
want to go inside? WOMAN: Yeah. [minimal music playing] DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: He was
shot at about 2:03. EMS came within minutes of that. And he had already passed. It was too late. WOMAN: Oh, God. What I have to do now is
figure out who did this. What we find
sometimes is the guys who did it are either
going to brag about it, and word will start getting out. It could be a week
from now that somebody is going to come to you and
go, this is what I'm hearing. [inaudible]
DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Tell
them to call me. But I know how it is. People don't like
the police sometimes. And it doesn't hurt my
feelings, believe me. But we got to get
whatever you get back to me, whether they want
to do it or you want to do it. Yeah. [eerie music] There's many reasons why people
don't like to come forward. Fear is one big avenue. Distrust-- historically
some people have this deep seated
distrust for the police. DET. JOE JEFFERSON: On a professional
level, highly frustrating. On a personal level, as just a--
a dude from New Orleans, yeah, I mean, I understand. It frustrates us,
and it frustrates the community as a whole. Because they don't
understand why some cases get solved and other cases don't. [AMBIENT MUSIC OVER DRUM MACHINE] NARRATOR: Over the
next few days-- DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: [inaudible] who
killed my boy the other day, right here on the corner. You don't know who-- NARRATOR: --Bender
hits the streets, trying to drum up leads. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Nobody's
saying anything? DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: A
lot of times, I'll talk to somebody who's adamant. They're not talking
to the police. But if you talk to
them long enough, you might be able to
break that barrier. I don't know if you
want this, but it's got my cell phone number on it. I'll find out what
happened out there, Brian. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Thank you, bro. [car door shuts] [exhales sharply] I got nothing. NARRATOR: Three days after the
murder, and with no new leads-- [phone rings] DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Hello,
this is Detective Bender. What happened? NARRATOR: --Bender's outreach
may have finally paid off. Do you know what
color SUV it was? It was light-colored. I got an anonymous phone
call from someone who lives in the area, says that
the possible getaway vehicle was parked at the
1100 block of Congress Street. And there's a pharmacy
at that corner that has exterior surveillance. So we're going to
go down there, see if there's anything
on there that will help us with the case. All right, so this is
where the car was supposed to be parked, in this block. And this is the
pharmacy on the corner. Go find out if there's
anything in there. [car door shuts] [door opens] [sighs] It sucks, man. NARRATOR: The
pharmacy's surveillance system is not working. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER:
That's about it, then. Now I got nothing. Not every homicide gets solved. The ones you don't solve usually
live with your loved ones you did solve. Because you always
question, what did I miss? What could I have
done different? But you hope that
somewhere down the road, you're going to solve it. NARRATOR: After weeks
with no progress-- [knocking on door] --Bender returns to visit
with Jonathan's family. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: What's going on? Thanks for coming. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: Yes, ma'am. So who caught all the fish? The family is trying
to raise money for the burial, and funeral
services, and everything. WOMAN: What would you like?
DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: One of each. WOMAN: One of each, OK.
DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: So
what they're doing is they're selling home-cooked
plate lunches out of the house. So we're here to do our part--
my part-- of helping them out. This senseless
killing has to stop. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER:
Unfortunately, in this city, it's way too common. I got to the point that I
stopped watching the news. Because every time you watch
the news, it's a murder. It's the same-- same thing-- And it's people that you knew. And it's time that
we all come together as one in our communities. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: The family,
you know, is good people. I'm sure if they get something
from one of the victim's friends, or-- or
they hear something, they're going to let us know. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Right.
DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: So we're just
going to keep working it. All right, we're going to
get out of y'all's hair. Thank y'all. If y'all need
something, call me. Somebody saw something. Somebody knew something. They're doing what they can. We're doing what we can. And hopefully we come to a-- a good conclusion,
identify who did this. [ambient music] DET. ROB BARRERE: If we don't
have trust between us and the people we
serve, we have nothing. You did the right thing.
DET. ROB BARRERE: So
I hope, you know, we can get to a level of
trust and mutual respect to where homicides
are solved easier. POLICE OFFICER: We're asking
anybody in the community, if they have information, bring
that to our homicide unit. DET. JOE JEFFERSON: It's wrong that
the murder rate in New Orleans is what it is. And in order to stop
it, it's going to take everybody working together. DET. TIMOTHY BENDER: And
that won't happen until they know Detective Tim,
or they know Detective Whoever. You get anything,
y'all can call me. I mean, everybody's
gotta cooperate. It's a Team effort
with a capital T.
