CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Police Department gained four new officers Friday morning less than 12 hours after two shooting deaths in the city.
“They’re ready,” Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster said following a swear-in ceremony at Charleston City Hall. Eager and ready to get started, he said the four men are “idealistic” about the situations they’ll have to encounter on the job.
“Of course we want our officers to remain idealistic, but reality does set in on some of the things they’ll have to see and experience,” he said. “Charleston, right now, is busting with a lot of activity.”
The department went several months this year without any shooting deaths, Webster said.
“We have to adjust to any kind of trends,” he said. “These two incidences last night appear, I mean we’re still figuring them out, but they appear to be impulsive and reckless. I know we say that a lot, but it’s the truth.”
The first shooting took place at around 12:35 a.m. at the Vista View Apartments on Renaissance Circle where one person was killed and two people were injured. A few hours later, Charleston resident Housein Keaton, 33, was shot to death on his porch at 408 Randolph Street on the city’s West Side. As of Friday afternoon, no arrests were made.
Job Ouma, one of the new officers, said he’s up for the challenge. He recently moved to Charleston from Maplewood, NJ.
“I’m a big city boy. I grew up in New York City and I took a trip to Charleston about a year ago and fell in love with the city. I told my wife I wanted to work here as a police officer,” Ouma said.
Calling himself a “military man,” Ouma said he’ll be bringing those skills to the job.
“I’m in the Air Force, so I can bring my skills that I learned in the Air Force,” he said. “I’m very patient as well. As a police officer, I think you need to be very patient, a people-person, knowing how to adapt to different situations and different people.”
Ouma said he’s most looking forward to working with the people of Charleston to make the city a better place to live.
More community watch groups have formed over the years to see police “in a more positive light,” Webster said.
The four new officers brings the department up to 162 officers with one vacancy.
Here is a list of the new officers:
Job Muhulu Ouma, 39, of Maplewood, NJ
Joseph Tyler Jude, 19, of Madison, WV
Joshua Tyler Mena, 21, of Charleston, WV
Joshua D. Clendenin, 24, of East Bank, WV