Police plead for help in murder case (05-07-2025--Hour1)

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[00:00:29] Last year, Jay Sean Young, 21 years old of Gastonia, died in a May 4th shooting in York, South Carolina. And in the studio with me today are two law enforcement officers from York Police Department, Detective Sergeant Kira Fayol and Lieutenant Sean Bailey from York PD. Welcome, y'all. I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it.

[00:00:52] And so they reached out because you guys need help with this case. I guess, Detective, I'll start with you. You need help with the case? Absolutely. In any case that we work in, and oftentimes how we work our cases, you know, there are intricate details that, you know, sometimes we delve into in an investigation.

[00:01:13] But really, reality is my experience as a detective has been our community is really where we get the majority of our answers. And we're asking for their assistance in this case. The case itself has been extremely active, especially it being the case that Jay Sean was actually out of our area. He wasn't a resident of York. He was a resident of Gastonia, North Carolina.

[00:01:38] And in knowing this, of course, no one is as familiar with him, but they had been there. They being his friends have been there visiting for some time, maybe over the course of maybe three weeks or so with some friends. And they were having what they call a kickback. And unfortunately, you know, just hanging out, friends, having meals, you know, having a great time like all of us have done. And three straight weeks or was it like a constant like coming and going?

[00:02:03] It was a back and forth. Yeah, back and forth and sometime a constant thing, you know, sometime they stayed over or whatever. But in this happening, he was basically ambushed. Jay Sean was not there at the residence 30 minutes at max before, unfortunately, he was shot and killed. So you mentioned you're asking for help from the community.

[00:02:28] And how has how has the information flow been going in the year since the murder? Have you been getting that kind of help or or has it been just like lockdown? You're not getting anything. Well, no, the the assistance has been there from day one. We have gotten Crime Stopper tips. We have gotten community tips, even in the calls that came in that evening and that night of when this happened.

[00:02:55] You know, those that want it to be helpful have been have been that over the course of this year. However, we have had some some circumstances or situations where we have information, but we need more understanding about the information that we have. You know, one of the things that we tell a lot of folks in law enforcement, we get a lot of information. All of it we have to explore. That's what we do as a detective.

[00:03:18] We have to go detect. But sometimes the confirmation we need from that information when it comes to pursuing charges or placing someone in jail, we have to ensure that we're one being fair and impartial and that we actually have that information to pursue prosecution. That's the hard part right now that that I've basically been faced with in doing in investigating this case is just those that came for some of them.

[00:03:45] They no longer want to to participate, whether it be fear of any type of retribution or fear that they just don't want to be involved. I think that some of us have forgotten what has truly happened. You know, a life has been lost. Yeah. And, you know, not only has a life been lost, a young life, you know, he was only 21. He also has a young son. He has family. This could have been any of us, any of our children.

[00:04:10] And I think we have forgotten really the purpose of why we come forward with information, I think has become more of a selfish circumstances versus being selfless. But you also can't force, you know, information as well. So that's why, you know, in asking, I'd rather ask than be silent and not ask for the help. And I've never been opposed. We as law enforcement have never been opposed to asking for help when we need it.

[00:04:38] Feel free, by the way, Lieutenant, if you want to add anything, you jump right in. Just raise your hand or something across the table here and jump right in. If there's anything that you want to add. Don't worry, I will. But he over here is doing an absolutely fantastic job. And I know this is just do me a favor. Pull your microphone a little bit closer to you. There you go. Yeah. Sorry. But no, he is doing an absolutely fantastic job. I know she's very passionate about this case, especially since Josh on was a true victim.

[00:05:04] A lot of the different incidents we investigate in law enforcement, somebody that is a, quote, victim of a crime sometimes contributed to that criminal activity just a little bit. But Josh on in this case, he was a true, true victim. And we want to see justice for him. So is it my understanding? And I said to you all before we got on air, if there if I ask you anything that you can't answer, I'm not trying to jeopardize your investigations.

[00:05:27] Just say you can't answer. But is it is it your theory or understanding or knowledge that that he was not the target? Like they weren't trying to hit him? It is my understanding that he was not a target. Like I said, stated he was not there at that residence 30 minutes to kind of give you more of the backstory. Like I said, they were having kickbacks and friends coming and going. He in a group of friends, three others to be specific, that were their victims themselves there in the residence.

[00:05:56] They were literally having dinner with some some female friends. They're laughing, talking, having a great time. He had just arrived at the house with some groceries. And understand these are the victims words, his best friends, people that know him intimately. He came with some, you know, bag of food, some fries. Specifically, I think they stated bag of fries and some chicken tenders trying to contribute to the dinner. The young lady there had already began cooking and basically had them taken care of.

[00:06:24] You had four friends on their rear back porch of that residence just speaking, talking, catching up on good times on life. And while standing out there talking to one friend, one of the friends actually maneuvered into the house to grab his plate. And suddenly shots just started sounding off and firing. And unfortunately, one of those shots actually struck Josh on and cost him his life. So he was on the back porch? Yes.

[00:06:51] Did it go through the so they were shot at the bullets went through the house or were they shot out from the rear? The rear of the residence is what was shot at. That we were able to retrieve different, some projectiles that, you know, could be still retrieved from the rear of the residence. Yes. They did not in none of the projectiles as far as we have known evidence wise penetrated the interior of the home of the residence where they were. It's a duplex. One level, of course.

[00:07:19] But there were projectiles that actually went in to that residence. Like I said, it could have it could have been anyone. Is there any indication that this was I mean, that this was a premeditated planned? You use the word ambush. This wasn't just some random act of violence. No, there are some indications that it was preplanned. But you have to define preplanned, you know, like basically, was it premeditated? Yes. You know, that's that's what murder is.

[00:07:50] Now, was it playing like something you and I may play in a certain way? We looking over some days and times and we just really writing this thing out. No, it wasn't that intricate. Right. It wasn't that detailed. However, was it playing a plan for a group of individuals specifically? And I don't have a problem stating this specifically five individuals from what I've learned through investigations came together collectively to decide that they wanted to harm someone else. Yes, absolutely.

[00:08:17] And that someone else was somebody else at that house, not Josh Sean? Not specifically someone else, but them as a group. OK. Yeah, these these basically my understanding from what community members have shared with me and told me the group of guys. I know them myself and invest being investigated thus far at York City Police Department. These group of individuals are associated with a gang that they a hybrid gang that they established. OK.

[00:08:45] Not I can't say that all of them are gang members, but they associate with with gang activity. This was not gang initiated, but them as a group and how they move behavior wise. It became that this group, you know, Valley. They call themselves VTTB. I don't want to give light to that type of behavior. You don't want to say their name? No. OK. And it's just specifically because we don't want to give light to this is you know, this is about Mr. Young. Yeah.

[00:09:13] What is the you said a hybrid gang? What does that mean? So hybrid gangs are just gangs that are kind of established locally based off of where they reside, their environment. Hybrid being like if we took a street name and say that, hey, this is the say the street name is Caramel. This is the this is the Caramel whatever gang. Yeah. That was what was considered hybrid. But they also take in practices of some of the more common right gang behaviors and practices.

[00:09:41] There was a it sounds like an operation that was run in East Charlotte. This is probably 15 years ago. And it was along Idlewild Road. And it was. Yeah. And they wore camouflage as their colors because it was an amalgamation basically of crips, bloods and somebody else. But they all so they all had their own gangs. But then because they all lived in the same sort of corridor around each other, they knew each other, went to school with each other, whatever.

[00:10:11] Right. And we're like, well, we're all this Idlewild gang. Yeah. Absolutely. Location, location, location. That is that is exactly correct. OK. So that's a hybrid gang. That's good to know. Yes. And associated with that, they decided as a group that they did not like this other group of individuals, males, you know, speaking, being there in their city. Specifically, the verbiage was from the community member that shared it with me was that they made a statement.

[00:10:39] They being the group of guys from Gastonia made a statement that they were going to take over their city. The Gastonia guys said that. Yes. Was that in jest? Was that just like or was that like is that were they gang related in Gastonia? Like moving in? From what I've discovered, they were not. They were just there present having a good time. Right. So could have been like, yeah, we're moving in. We're taking over kind of a bravado. Well, I think it was more so not actually someone from their group actually said it.

[00:11:08] I think it was more insinuated from how they were maneuvering. You know, they came down in nice looking cars, you know, looked like they had money. They just simply they being the suspects did not want them in their neighborhood. All right. So spring is here. A time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by?

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[00:12:36] And in studio with me, Detective Kira Fayol, sorry, Fayol, and Lieutenant Sean Bailey. So let me ask, why did y'all decide to do this? Because this is not normal for law enforcement officers to come and sit and say, hey, let me talk about a case that's active. And we should point out, right, somebody has been arrested for this crime, right? Yes, sir. And what can you say about that person?

[00:13:04] What I can say about that person is that we are pursuing our charges against them in prosecution and he is a juvenile. How we will be trying to pursue those charges in him as an adult. So that's still unknown as to whether or not he will be tried as an adult or not? Yes, that is currently. It's not unknown. It's something that I can't currently speak to. Okay. But it is active. And he's what? He was 15? He was 15 at the time. I believe he's now 16. Okay. You believe there are others involved?

[00:13:34] Are there any other arrests besides him? There was one other arrest that was another juvenile as well alongside with him. However, at this time, he is not incarcerated. And there are, to answer your question, there are other people of interest. And that's what you're asking for help? Correct. Okay. And so why did y'all reach out and do this? Because like I said, this is not usual. Well, mainly because, one, we deemed it necessary.

[00:14:02] Our community members really assist us and help us. It also took initiative of me having a conversation with Jaishan's mother, Ms. Shauna Berger, and understanding how this has affected her, their family, and also the future of Jaishan's son. And we just really felt the need to want to reach out to our community members and just really ask for the understanding of that. You know, we need your help. We definitely need your help.

[00:14:30] The reality is, you know, with him no longer being with us and the life being lost, him, you know, 21 years old, he'll be forever young. And it's unfortunate in this loss. And I just really, truly, as law enforcement, we want to help his family seek the justice that they need. Yeah. If people have information and want to help, you can call Crime Stoppers of York County. That is at 877-409-4321.

[00:14:57] You can also visit the website, CrimeStoppersOfYorkCounty.com. You can also check out the Facebook page for the city of York, the police department, or you can call the York City Police Department directly and relay information to them that you may have. And one of the things I've always heard law enforcement say on this stuff is that you don't know what information you have that might actually be really, really important.

[00:15:23] And so even if you don't think it's much of anything, it could make a case. Absolutely. Absolutely. So is there anything else you all want to add that is important or you want people to know before we let you go? Just to please just look into yourself. And if you have information, please don't hesitate to reach out. Even in being anonymous, please, we could really use the help. Yeah. Anything you want to add?

[00:15:48] I just want to echo that I greatly appreciate Kiera's work on this case, everything that she has done. She's one of our best investigators. This was a very heinous crime, in my opinion. I've been doing this job for 15 years, investigated a lot of shootings. And if you could see the way that the back of this house was peppered with bullets, you would know that there's more than one shooter. And if we only have one person in custody and we can't figure out who else it is, we need to get these other people off the streets. So this way it doesn't happen to anybody else. Yeah.

[00:16:19] Lieutenant Sean Bailey, that was his voice there. And Detective Sergeant Kiera Fayol. Fayol. I always say it wrong. That's absolutely fine. Okay. I apologize for mangling the name. But thank you very much for the work that you're doing. Thanks for coming in and reaching out. We appreciate it. And good luck on the case. Thank you for having us. Keep us posted. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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[00:17:48] I pointed out when I was talking with the lieutenant and the sergeant from York City PD there that it is unusual for law enforcement agencies and detectives to sit for interviews about cases that are ongoing, that they are actively investigating. And so I appreciate them doing that.

[00:18:15] And I would like to see more. And I told them this during the break that, you know, I got a press release and we get press releases from all sorts of law enforcement agencies and such. And one of them, we get press releases from the district attorney's office. And I got one, it was either Monday or yesterday, I forget. And so I always read them because they're announcing the outcomes of trials.

[00:18:46] And they announce the outcome of a trial of an individual who was charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon. And in the murder of a man, I want to say this was, I think it was a four-year-old homicide.

[00:19:12] And all it said was, you know, guy's name, what he was charged with, not guilty. And I went through the e-court system, went and pulled the files to see what I could find out about the case. And there weren't, there were no details. There was nothing in, and maybe it was because the verdict had just come down or something, but there wasn't anything else in there.

[00:19:34] But a guy just, just beat the charges, which to me, it seems, I don't know, seems like a pretty easy thing to be able to convince 12 people that, hey, this guy's a felon. Here's his record. And he had the gun, but maybe they couldn't connect him to the gun. I don't know. But a jury acquitted him unanimously. And so that's another, you know, I shouldn't say unsolved.

[00:20:03] I was going to say unsolved, but I'm sure law enforcement believes they did solve that case. And that's a family of a murder victim that now doesn't get any kind of justice for that. There are multiple parts of the system that break down, right? If people refuse to cooperate, and it seems like, and the detective made this comment also, that people that did cooperate did provide statements in the past.

[00:20:33] Now they're not so willing to do so anymore. And that, you don't know why that happens, but I can take a guess. I can guess at, you know, fear of reprisal. They've been threatened, right? Maybe friends or family members, neighbors are pressuring them or shunning them if they think that they're being, you know, helpful to law enforcement to solve a crime.

[00:21:00] And it's the tragedy in all of this stuff because the people who suffer the most are the neighbors or the residents, are the members of the community that live there. That now you've got a criminal element that's, you know, living among you and they feel like they've got the ability to murder and abuse their neighbors with impunity.

[00:21:27] And the only way that that, the only way that that gets fixed is if people come forward and help to put away the criminals. Otherwise, you're going to be beset by criminality in perpetuity. So yeah, if anybody has information on that, please reach out to the York City Police Department.

[00:21:52] Along those lines, I came across this a couple of weeks ago because you hear a lot about, you hear a lot about when we're talking about gun control efforts and such or in any kind of a, like a mass shooting event, you hear the arguments about, you know, we can't have people armed. You're hearing this argument in the legislature with regard to the private schools wanting to allow teachers to conceal carry.

[00:22:22] Legislation is moving through Raleigh that would allow them to do that. So, of course, there is this pushback. You know, we shouldn't have, you know, the answer isn't more guns. The answer isn't more guns. Well, there's a new report out and it's from Dr. John Lott. He is from the Crime Prevention Research Center along with Carlisle Moody, professor of economics emeritus from the College of William and Mary.

[00:22:47] They aggregated data and they put out a paper called, Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police? It was released last month. And not only did they find that civilians are effective, they are at least incrementally more effective than law enforcement. And that may seem counterintuitive. How is that possible?

[00:23:17] So, the first takeaway is that the armed and the difficulty here is that you're trying to get a count of how many, you know, quote, mass shootings, which there's differing definitions of that. Is it three or more people? You know, three or more dead? Three or more shot?

[00:23:37] But if you take out a shooter after, you know, the guy opens fire and maybe hits one person, doesn't kill them, and then the shooter is taken down, does that count as a mass shooting? Right? So, aggregating the data is the first thing, right? Getting the definitions right. But, if you do it the way Dr. Lott, and he's done, you know, all of this research in the field for decades, he says,

[00:24:04] armed citizens have stopped more active shooter incidents than the police have, although the difference is not significantly different from zero. So, they're a little bit more effective, but not by much. Armed citizens do not appear to interfere with the police or blunder so badly as to get their weapon taken away by the shooter or kill the wrong person either. So, these are the arguments that you hear against arming people in locations where, you know, guns are banned.

[00:24:35] Schools, shopping malls, that kind of thing. Armed citizens have stopped 57 active shooter events, which otherwise were likely to have escalated into mass public shootings. Now, the paper stresses that this is not a knock on law enforcement because they are almost never present when the incidents begin, right? Which is by design. The shooters plan their sprees that way.

[00:25:04] And, in some cases, they specifically take out the police first or the armed security first who arrive on the scene at the beginning of the rampages. This is one of the things that concealed carry holders have that is an advantage, which is the shooter doesn't know they're armed. When law enforcement rolls in, the shooter does. Police are less likely to be near an attack when it occurs.

[00:25:29] And if they are, they are more likely to be targeted and killed because they're targeted first because they are the biggest threat to the shooter. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News.

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[00:26:42] So, reading from a piece over at HotAir.com by Mitch Berg, spree shootings prompt diametrically different reactions on both sides of the political aisle. Those on the left demand that we do something, and that something usually is some degree of disarming law-abiding citizens. Those on the right point out that there is, in fact, a pattern to these episodes.

[00:27:07] They tend to happen much more frequently in places where law-abiding citizens are not allowed to legally have firearms. Spree killers tend to plan their rampages for places with unarmed victims that—and those who don't—those who don't often— Okay, I don't understand. Those who don't often don't live to regret it. That—oh, okay. So they plan—okay, I see what he did there. That's an inappropriate use of the semicolon.

[00:27:36] Spree killers tend to plan their rampages for places with unarmed victims. And the killers who don't, if they don't look for places with unarmed victims, then they usually don't survive the encounter. So conservatives, pro-Second Amendment liberals, and yes, they do exist, they'll say something like a good guy with a gun beats a bad guy with a gun. And leftists usually dismiss that. They poo-poo it.

[00:28:05] But spree killers who spend months or maybe years planning their rampages are frequently in a disassociated reverie state as they make their attacks. Resistance of any kind frequently causes the reverie to break, sort of the spell, right? This trance that they go into, right? You've been planning on this thing happening. You're getting all, you know, worked up. Your adrenaline's pumping.

[00:28:34] You get tunnel vision and all of this. And you start doing—you're like, oh my gosh, I'm doing this. I'm actually doing the thing. And you're moving through the crowd and all of this. And when somebody starts to fight back, a lot of times it breaks that spell. This is why a lot of shooters, when they write their, you know, manifestos, I'm not going to survive this and all of that. But, you know, I'm going to go down. There's no way I'm going to surrender and all this. And then they do surrender. Why?

[00:29:03] Because in the planning phase, they think they're in this state, right? And then when the spell is broken, they're cowards. And that's precisely why they target unarmed people. But if somebody does fight back, it breaks the spell. They often break off their attacks. They give up. Or they kill themselves. The paper—again, this was a paper that was released over at—well, it was published.

[00:29:35] Yeah, so it was published at the sister publication of HotAir.com, a website called Bearing Arms. And it's by Dr. John Lott from the Crime Prevention Research Center and Dr. Carlisle Moody, the professor of economics emeritus from the College of William & Mary. And the name of the paper is called Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police? And so underneath all of this, what does the data show?

[00:30:01] Does it show that a good guy with a gun can stop the bad guy with a gun? The paper shows armed citizens reduce the number of deaths in active shooter incidents significantly more than the police do. In fact, armed citizens reduce the number of people killed by 49 percent, while the police increase the number killed by 16 percent.

[00:30:28] In comparison to the omitted class, which is shooters who are arrested later or are stopped by unarmed citizens or stop of their own accord. So this does not mean that calling the cops results in more deaths. The police are associated events that are more deadly than either armed citizen response or other action.

[00:30:50] However, the results indicate that police are less effective than armed citizens in reducing the number of deaths associated with active shooters. So this is just another data point. So you shouldn't look at this survey, just like you shouldn't look at any, or not survey, but study, or any paper as the end-all, be-all.

[00:31:16] But when you get enough of these papers done, enough of this research done, you start to see the picture. The larger context becomes clearer. And so this is why whenever any of these mass shootings occur, whatever, I always wait. I want more information to come out.

[00:31:39] But then I am happy to have the conversation about what can we do. Because whenever we have the conversation, I feel like we are winning. The argument that good people that go through the process, get their concealed carry, they are law-abiding citizens.

[00:32:03] This is precisely the cohort of individuals that you want around when some maniac shows up at a place where nobody is expecting to be attacked. And when it comes to, for example, the legislation up in Raleigh that would allow teachers at private schools to conceal carry, if they so choose, right? And they get permission from the school to do so. I support that. It's a logical response.

[00:32:33] It makes sense. So yes, I welcome the debate. Because again, I feel like we're winning. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.