NEW PORT RICHEY - Several east Pasco residents have renewed the call for a community forum with Sheriff Bob White to discuss the simmering tensions in Lacoochee.
This time the request came from the Rev. Jesse McClendon, pastor of New Life Family Church in Christ in Dade City, and two relatives of Alfredie Steele Jr., the 19-year-old accused of shooting Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison near the Rumors nightclub.
"The tension is very, very high," Steele's uncle, Robert Steele, told the County Commission on Tuesday evening. "Unless we get both sides together and get them to understand we need to smother this thing, it's going to explode in our face."
White has visited informally with Lacoochee residents since the June 1 shooting but has no plans to host a community forum, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said Wednesday.
"He thinks that the way he has been meeting with individual community members and individual community leaders has been effective to this point," Doll said.
One of those community leaders, housing authority planner Isa Blanford, had called for a forum this month. She withdrew her suggestion a few days later, though, and said the sheriff's one-on-one visits might be more effective than a group meeting, where tempers could flare.
