While the cases of different alleged members of the “Gilbert Goons” wend their way through the court system, Gilbert is still grappling with its teen violence issue.
A mortar firework set a July 3 barn fire, which 10 teens inside were able escape. The barn’s owner has maintained it was done partly in retaliation for her daughter blocking some boys from her social media.
The fire on top of the Goons incidents helped turn up the spotlight on repeated problems in Morrison Ranch with youth harassing residents and vandalizing the neighborhood. Those incidents date back to 2020.
Data on Gilbert crime is unflinching: despite perceptions fueled by the Goons’ run and the killing of San Tan Valley youth Preston Lord at a Halloween party in Queen Creek, youth crime in town is a small blip on the radar. Gilbert remains among the safest places to live in the country, No. 2 among larger municipalities, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.
But there’s another reality at play, too, one data cannot obscure.
“Safety is a metric, but it is also a feeling, and sometimes the feeling and the metrics don't match up,” said former Gilbert Police Cmdr. Kenny Buckland, who retired from the force in 2016 and is now a Gilbert Town Council candidate.
“If you don't feel safe, that is a problem. The question is why and how do we get you there?”
Ongoing Morrison Ranch problems
The problems in Morrison Ranch date back to at least 2020. As a result, Gilbert Police frequently has been engaged in the area.
Community concerns included juveniles shooting other juveniles and bystanders with water gel pellets/projectiles and air soft guns; juvenile vehicular and motorized device activity (golf carts, motorcycles, motor driven cycles, dirt bikes, electric bicycles, etc.) like speeding in and around the neighborhood and businesses; fighting; drinking alcohol; and committing criminal damage in the area.
“We share the public’s concern,” Chief Michael Soelberg told Gilbert Town Council at an update Aug. 6 in which he spoke specifically about teen issues in that neighborhood.
Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg outlined all the responses police have had to problems with teens in Morrison Ranch. (Screen capture from YouTube)
Screen capture from YouTube
During the past four years, GPD has had seven special details in the area and participated in two community meetings.
Each special operation focused on education and enforcement for the youth and their parents, according to police. The enforcement operations were in addition to GPD’s normal proactive patrols within the Morrison Ranch area.
The details resulted in:
534 contacts;
70 traffic stops;
37 citations;
57 written warnings;
14 arrests.
After each special operation and community meeting, GPD reported the neighborhood experienced a decline in juvenile-related incidents. However, over time, police saw incidents begin to return so the department had to again address the issues with enforcement and education.
But police said they had challenges with enforcement, including some residents who complained officers were taking it too far with enforcement mechanisms such as vehicle impoundment.
Soelberg said police also have had problems with youth fleeing when approached, be it on scooters or e-bikes, and some of the problems that plagued GPD through the Gilbert Goons situation have been problems in Morrison Ranch.
“We are seeing incidents where crimes are occurring, and it's not being reported to the police department,” he said. “Additionally, victims not desiring prosecution and therefore cases have been closed, and then the fear of retaliation and retribution (from) the suspects of committed crimes. But again, as I mentioned before, if it's not reported, it'll continue.”
Barn fire
The Jones family technically does not live in the Morrison Ranch neighborhood but is adjacent to it. They were aware of a string of fireworks-related incidents around November 2023: one into a garage, one that damaged a front yard, another a basement door, another into a pool where girls were swimming. A couple of mailboxes were blown up.
In January, a mailbox was blown up and later, after a police report was filed about it, a boy who lives inside the home was held down by boys and beaten up because the boys believed him to be a snitch.
One of the boys was charged with assault and spent time in juvenile detention as a result. The fireworks problems tailed off for a while.
It turned more serious July 3, though the boys may not have intended for the Jones’ barn to burn down.
The Jones family's barn was a total loss. (Courtesy Jeni Jones)
Courtesy Jeni Jones
Though the Jones’ daughter had once been school friends with the boys, a couple had gotten mad at her for different reasons, according to the mother, Jeni Jones. One was harassing her, calling her a snitch, which led the parents to tell their daughter to block him and that he was no longer welcome at the house.
On the night of July 3, the daughter had some friends and cousins over for a pre-holiday get-together. They were in the barn when eight boys egged one of the Jones’s cars and then a boy threw a firework into the barn where the teens were.
All of the teens escaped, but the barn was soon fully involved in a fire. Gilbert Fire and Rescue responded quickly but the barn was a total loss. Also lost in it: three classic cars, Jeni Jones’ wedding dress and heirlooms from their parents.
Police arrested two boys that night. While they have been released to their families under certain conditions, including noncontact with the other boys, they are in the juvenile court system with the possibility of being charged as adults.
Jones said she has concerns if police had acted more thoroughly on earlier complaints, it would not have advanced to the point where the barn was burned down. Two of the boys named as being at the barn fire were named in the January assault. One had been tied to a mailbox complaint.
She has spoken with Soelberg about it, who she said told her at the time police were only able to go off what information they had.
“That's where the frustration comes in, because I'm like, I'm just the mom with just limited research, just limited access,” she said. “But on the flip side, I can see how I have limited access in that way, but I have more access to the parents and the victims because if people have come forward and nothing was done, then they don't trust the police as much.
“And so I can connect where the police don't necessarily know where or how to get some of the information, like the social media accounts. We have teenagers who can help us get that information.”
Jeni Jones told Gilbert Town Council on Aug. 6 that perhaps if police had acted more on earlier complaints, her barn would not have burned down. But overall she has been happy with police. (Screen capture YouTube)
Screen capture from YouTube
But Jones said overall she is pleased with police response and their diligence since the barn burned down. And she knows, from a nephew being murdered in 2015, how long it can take for the wheels of justice to turn, even when the perpetrator is known.
She also is highly complimentary of the school — most all of the students involved, including her daughter, attend or formerly attended Highland High School.
The school has been responsive to her concerns, she said, worked to keep the boys separated from each other and her daughter and recognized false reports that were made to try to get the daughter kicked off the cheer squad.
Likewise, she said she has been well supported at church, even while some of the boys are of the same faith, though not part of the same congregation.
But within the community, it has been more difficult. Some of the girls who were in the barn that night have resumed being friends with the boys. Some are mad at the Jones family for speaking out. A false police report was filed against Jeni Jones by another parent, though police told her they could not prove it was filed with that parent knowing it was false.
And though one boy has been ordered to stay away from the others while released, Jones said his father does not care if he associates with them, and the other boys’ parents mostly do not either.
Jones said most parents will not hold their kids accountable, though she notes one supportive parent approached her to say she wanted to know if her child was ever involved. Some just do not believe the kids were involved.
Jones said even she was disappointed to learn of the involvement of one boy.
“He would come to our home,” she said. “All these boys had been in our home, by the way, and he'd be like, ‘Hi, Mrs. Jones. Hi, Mr. Jones.’ Walk right in. Shake our hand, say goodbye when he left. ‘Do you need anything? Do you need any help with anything?’ So they know how to act around adults, but then when it's only teenagers, they are like Jekyll and Hyde.”
She said her concerns with officialdom are not with police but with the judge, prosecutor and probation officer. She said she believes they may not be taking it seriously enough or fooled by the boys’ behavior in front of them and the parental support.
Still, she hopes for a good, long-term outcome for all involved.
“We have a lot of grace for them,” Jones said. “Even though they've done this, we don't think that it should follow them (though life). But we do want to see some accountability and remorse and change.”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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