Donations made to efforts focused on cutting crime

General Electric donated $10,000 and Cox Communications pledged $100,000 in free air time toward crime-prevention efforts in the northeast valley on Thursday.

The money will go to the Safe Valley United initiative, the 2-year-old effort to provide community support in the wake of violent crimes.

"We are working together. That is how we are going to be successful," Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said at a news conference while flanked by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and first lady Dawn Gibbons.

Safe Valley United was launched after the success of its sister program, Safe Village, in the historic West Las Vegas neighborhood. The programs encourage police, and people associated with schools, churches and businesses to become more involved in their communities. After traumatic events, such as homicides, members of the groups go to the crime scenes to help relatives of the victim and quell fears in the community.

So far, robberies have dropped 35 percent in the department's Northeast Area Command in the past two years, Capt. Chris Darcy said. Homicides dropped 12.5 percent in 2009 from 2008.

But leaders of the effort want more people to get involved.

"We want people with ideas and time," Darcy said.

The $10,000 was donated to the 10,000 Kids organization, led by Troy Martinez, a pastor at East Vegas Christian Center and coordinator of Safe Valley United. The group provides assistance to families of victims of violence and works in schools to teach students the effects of crime.

Also present at the event were Karen Brill and Tony Fleming, who each lost 14-year-old sons to gun violence in 2009. Fleming's son, Jared Flemming, was shot and killed at a house party. The suspect, Barron Hamm, has pleaded not guilty.

"I still don't feel it's real," he said. "Some days it just kicks me in the gut."

Nobody has been arrested in the killing of Brill's son, Aric. He also was shot to death at a house party.