The DeKalb School Board and the DeKalb Police Department will hold an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., for residents to discuss last Tuesday’s homicide and gang activity in the area.

“People in the community don’t always know what’s being done to keep them safe. If they feel safe then they don’t really pay attention, it’s not a concern,” said DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen. “But when they start to feel unsafe, when they start wondering, should I be concerned about my safety, should I be concerned about my child walking down the street, that’s when they start asking questions.”

He said they will also address the rumors floating around. “We want to separate some facts from fiction,” Feithen said.

The Ben Gordon Center will also be present to discuss gangs and related issues.

The shooting and events leading up to it

Last Tuesday’s shooting on Seventh Street, between Locust and Oak streets, resulted in the death of 19-year-old Jayson Martin. The suspect, Max J. Keding, 15, of DeKalb was charged with first degree murder and is at the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center in St. Charles.

The police sensed friction between members of the Gangster Disciples and the Latin Kings for some time, Feithen said.

Keding was a Latin King and Feithen said Martin was a “self-admitted” member of Gangster Disciples. Martin had previously admitted to a detective that he was a member, he said.

There are other reasons for the police’s insistence Martin was a gang member, but at this time Feithen said he could not go into those details. Martin’s family denies he was a gang member.

The police believe an earlier incident Tuesday may have triggered the shooting. A group of people, some of whom were at the scene of the homicide, had an altercation at Leehan’s Drug Store, 1407 S. Fourth St., and Sullivan’s Foods Supermarket, 1401 S. Fourth St.

Concerned citizens called the police, but by the time the police came, the group had dispersed.

According to Feithen, the evening incident started when four people began walking down Seventh Street after going to a store in downtown DeKalb not far from the scene. A car full of people from the other gang pulled up, and the car’s occupants started to yell and challenge the other group.

The people jumped out of the car and both groups started to challenge and argue with one another.

“The fight started, some toy guns were pulled, a real gun was pulled and the rest is history,” Feithen said.

Between 12 and 20 people were at the scene. This included females but the main participants were male, he said.

Martin and Keding started fighting while Keding had a gun. Keding shot himself in the arm and Feithen said they are still unclear as to how that happened.

“He and the victim were wrestling and fighting, and in the process while [Keding] was holding the victim he accidently shot himself,” he said.

Martin did not have a weapon during the fight.

At this point police don’t know how Keding got the gun. On Friday police found the weapon, a .22 semi-automatic pistol, in the attic of the garage at Keding’s residence.

Making sense of it all

Police are trying to figure out what triggered the shooting.

“It could have been that they were in two opposing groups. It could have been that they had a single incident that they were mad at each other about. But we don’t know at this point,” Feithen said.

For 31 years, Feithen has been a member of the DeKalb Police Department. He said there was a gang presence in DeKalb 31 years ago, whether people realized it or not.

“Not a big one, not an obvious one, but there were people living in DeKalb that were associated with gangs,” he said.

Gang activity has continued over the years. However, the difference is the youth of today are more willing to be part of gangs and take more risks, he said.

Feithen said he remains confident the situation in DeKalb is not as bad as perceived. There hasn’t been a murder in four years and DeKalb’s crime rate is lower than national and state averages, he said.

Police will continue to be proactive and vigilant when it comes to gang-related issues.

“My focus continues to be to keep DeKalb safe. I believe that this is an aberration, this is something that is unusual to DeKalb. This was our first gang-related homicide, hopefully our last,” Feithen said.