Police searching for Samuel 'Bubba' Anderson's killer
By Loresha Wilson
ljwilson@gannett.com
Gladys Walker saw police cars race up the street with flashing lights and sirens. Moments later, the phone rang and her husband asked "where is Bubba."
Walker's motherly instinct instantly told her something was wrong.
"I felt it," she said. "I didn't know what it was, but I just knew it. Eventually, I left home to see for myself, and I prayed all the way up Audrey Lane that nothing was wrong with my child."
About a mile away from Walker's north Shreveport residence, at the corner of Audrey Lane at Thomas E. Howard Drive, her son, Samuel "Bubba" Anderson, was lying in a vacant field, dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Police say a passer-by found the 16-year-old about 6:30 p.m. Aug. 1. He'd been there at least an hour.
For at least five years, the teen has been the subject of bullying, beatings and threats. Walker says she's made call after call to police seeking help for her child. In March, three carloads of teens pulled in front of the house looking for Anderson and nothing was done, the mother said.
"Samuel use to come home running every day saying 'Mama, they jumped me.' or "Mama, come pick me up. They trying to jump me,'" Walker said. "It had gotten so bad that I started telling him to try and stay close to home.
"I begged police for help. If they would have done it at first, my child wouldn't be dead."
Shreveport Police Chief Willie Shaw defends his department, saying policies and procedures are in place to delineate how officers respond to reported crimes. And he contends the officers act according to departmental guidelines.
"As I have said before, crimes like this are difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy; in other words, murders are not normally crimes that we can pattern by looking at emerging trends," Shaw said. "It is almost impossible to know when someone is going to pick up a gun or a knife and resolve a conflict, whether real or perceived, in a violent, criminal manner.
"However, we will continue our fight against violent crimes on several fronts, and our investigators will continue working tirelessly to determine who is responsible for the death of Samuel Anderson.
Shreveport police have responded to several calls for service at Walker's residence in the 2700 of Martin Luther King Drive. Authorities didn't release specifics on the calls but say they include reports of fights, shootings, harassing phone calls, juvenile complaints and warrant executions.
One report indicates that a juvenile, 16, punched his little brother in the mouth and in another report, one person who lives at the house, was arrested for illegal use of a weapon.
"Now those are the calls at her home," said Bill Goodin, spokesman for Shreveport police. "That does not mean she called and some of those are going to be self initiated calls where an officer got down at that location on a follow-up or a warrant execution."
Meanwhile, the investigation into Anderson's death continues. Detectives have interviewed numerous people and are still trying to identify the suspect or suspects involved.
Walker talked with investigators Monday and is confident they're doing what they can to find the person responsible for killing her child. She blames herself for not doing her part to protect him, but says this time she won't give up.
"Grant me, I'm not stopping," she said. "I'm not giving up until they catch the person who killed my baby."
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