murder Archives - SMART Union

Norfolk Southern conductor and UTU member Jerrick A. Jackson, 47, was shot multiple times and killed May 7 in an apparent robbery at his home in Atlanta.

Jackson was a member of Local 1245 in Atlanta and the local has established a memorial fund to assist his family, Local Secretary & Treasurer Jay C. Roy reports. Contributions payable to the Jerrick Jackson Memorial Fund, c/o Kim Little may be sent to the Jerrick Jackson Memorial Fund, c/o UTU Local 1245, 75 Biltmore Ln., Dallas, GA 30157.

According to a report by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jackson and his fiance were returning home from a fast-food restaurant around 1 a.m. when they were approached by several males with guns drawn.

After robbing Jackson and the woman of a wallet and purse outside the home, the suspects ordered the couple inside the home, where Jackson and one of the suspects began to fight, according to police. One of the suspects then shot Jackson several times before the suspects left the home.

Jackson’s soon-to-be step-daughter, Anbiya Mitchell, told CBS Atlanta News she had no idea why anyone would want to rob and murder the man she called dad.

She said she was upstairs when she heard her mother and Jackson being forced inside their home. “At that time, I barricaded myself in my room and call 911,” Mitchell said. “I loved him. And I really do consider him a hero because he did protect me from the four guys getting upstairs.

Jackson was the younger brother of Bishop Wiley Jackson, founder and pastor of the Gospel Tabernacle Cathedral. In a statement released May 7, Wiley Jackson asked that those responsible for his brother’s death to surrender.

“To the young men who committed this senseless act, as a man of faith and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have already forgiven you,” he said. “But I ask you to turn yourselves in so that you can begin the process of true redemption.”

Roy said Jackson was a great person who genuinely cared about others and offered any help he could give. “That guy was well liked by everybody. Everybody down here is just in shock,” he said.

Roy said Jackson hired out with Norfolk Southern in May 2006. He was qualified as a conductor on the Georgia Division, Inman Yard/North District on Oct. 1, 2006, and has been an active member of Local 1245 in Atlanta since Dec. 1, 2006.

A service will be held for Jackson on Monday, May 13, at 2 p.m. at The Gospel Tabernacle Cathedral at 277 Clifton St. S.E. in Atlanta.

By UTU International President Mike Futhey

The recent tragic, senseless and violent murder in New Orleans of CSX conductor Fred Gibbs, and wounding of the train’s engineer (a potential witness whose name is being withheld), accelerates an already urgent need for better workplace safety and security measures for rail, transit and motor coach facilities and operations.

Gibbs and the engineer were shot by a lone gunman (a suspect is in police custody) inside the cab of their intermodal train parked on a dark and isolated stretch of track as it awaited dispatcher clearance to enter a yard in New Orleans. The motive appears to have been robbery of the crew, but the train could have contained a cargo of chlorine gas or other deadly hazmat, and the shooter could have been a terrorist or delusional individual with knowledge of locomotive operations.

Indeed, prior to 9/11, few, if any, envisioned terrorists capable of hijacking and piloting multiple sophisticated passenger aircraft and flying them into high-profile targets; or of terrorists in Madrid, Spain, who coordinated four separate rush-hour bombings aboard packed commuter trains in March 2004.

Many of our members noted immediately after the New Orleans shooting that federal regulations do not require bullet-proof glass in locomotives, tamper-proof and functioning locomotive door locks, “keyed” or electronic safeguards that limit locomotive operation to licensed train and engine workers, or train scheduling and dispatching that restricts the stopping of trains to well-lighted and protected areas.

Certainly these are logical responses to the New Orleans shooting.

But without more expert study and collaboration among experts at the Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Transportation Security Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, law enforcement agencies, carriers and labor organizations representing rail, transit and bus employees, we could be overlooking other effective safeguards.

Transportation labor long has been ahead of the curve in calling for greater collaboration among stakeholders, which includes front-line employee training to recognize threats and learn how best to report concerns to dispatchers and law enforcement.

In fact, Amtrak and the UTU recently agreed to a joint project that, in cooperation with the Transportation Security Administration, directs almost $300,000 in federal funding to the UTU to devise and implement a training program for conductors, assistant conductors, engineers, on-board service personnel and yard employees to enhance their abilities to recognize behavioral traits of individuals intending to engage in terrorist-like activity.

The UTU is now reaching out to build on this program to effectuate workplace safety as it pertains to terrorist and delusional activities.

We are seeking collaboration among other concerned labor organizations, federal safety and homeland security agencies, and carriers to create an incubator for effective ideas on a comprehensive security action plan, including employee training, that can be presented to Congress for fast-track federal funding.

We are heartened by word from CSX that it has begun a cooperative security venture with other carriers and law enforcement agencies to increase security around interchanges and loops in New Orleans.

The potential threat, however, is nationwide; and as train and engine employees, and bus drivers, are constantly in the cross-hairs of danger as well as being the eyes and ears best and first able to recognize threats, it is essential that transportation labor organizations be an integral part of any effort to improve rail, transit and bus security.

Historically, transportation labor and the carriers have been most successful in achieving policy goals when they act in concert. Where carriers or labor act separately — and often at odds with each other — success often is elusive or falls short of goals.

For any action plan to be effective, all parties with accountability and responsibility must collaborate in the creation and implementation of that plan.

We will be reporting more on this effort in the near future.