ST. MARTINVILLE — Juliette Boudreaux is seeking answers to the gun violence that is plaguing St. Martinville.

“I have lived here all my life, worked here all my life, and I am afraid to walk in my yard,” she said during a town hall meeting at the Magnolia Park pavilion Tuesday night. “I’ve never had to live that way in St. Martinville.”

Boudreaux was one of the organizers of a meeting between about two dozen residents and representatives of the city police, St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office and city administration to talk about what can be done to reduce violent crime.

“I put this together because I am very concerned with gun violence,” Boudreaux said. “I want to know what we can do as residents to help the police.”

St. Martinville Police Chief Ricky Martin, flanked by several of his officers and Kervin Fontenette of the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, said that his office is making arrests, but there are many issues that keep the people who are arrested on the streets.

“We have had six, now seven murders in the city since I took office,” Martin said. “We have solved all of them. But that is not the whole story.”

Martin explained that once an arrest is made, suspects are booked, then the case is sent to the district attorney for evaluation and, if the case can be made, trial. But in the interim, shortage of jail space, the availability of bail for pretrial inmates, and other variables such as the COVID-19 pandemic have made keeping criminals behind bars a challenge.

City District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier said that part of the problem in his eyes was judges lowering bond on violent offenders. But Fontenette said he did not see that as something that has become more prevalent.

“The bonds given recently are consistent with bonds I have seen in the past,” Fontenette said.

Parish District 3 Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse agreed that low bonds being set was not a new issue, but it is still a problem for law enforcement.

“My brother was killed, shot nine times,” Narcisses said. “Two days later, the man who did it had bonded out and attacked someone else. So it has been going on for years, but it is still a problem.”

“We are not putting any fear in them,” mayoral candidate Jason Willis said. “It’s primarily the younger generation, but they have no fear of consequences.”

Martin said that the biggest thing that his officers need is information from the public when crimes occur.

“Give us the tools we need to make arrests,” Martin said.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, someone knows who it is that commits a crime,” St. Martinville District 3 Councilman Dennis Paul Williams said. “We just aren’t being honest about it.”

“They don’t want to get involved,” Willis agreed.

“It’s because they are afraid,” Boudreaux explained. “These people are right back on the street. They are afraid of retribution.”

Boudreaux said she had gone as far as purchasing the house next door to her home so that it would not be rented out any more because of the activity that had occurred there.

One of the outcomes of the meeting may be a renewed interest in people serving on the citizen advisory group Martin had established for the city so his department could build better relationships across the various districts. Another outcome is the potential for new neighborhood watch districts being set up.