Ex-‘Lake Boyz’ leader now wants to fight crime

FORT MYERS, Fla. A former leader of a prominent Fort Myers gang now wants to help put an end to crime in Dunbar.

But he says the police aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.

Eugene Nance, who served jail time on drug charges after his time in the notorious “Lake Boyz” gang, is calling on city leaders to see for themselves what’s going on in a part of town where two deadly shootings have taken place since Thursday.

“If your policemen can’t do a better job, then you need to do some own footwork yourself and see what’s going on in the Dunbar area, and see why it’s not going right, and you’ll figure out real quick why it’s not going right,” Nance said. “Because the cops are not doing their jobs.”

He also made the city an offer.

“Hire me,” he said.

Nance worked against crime fighters in the 1990s, but now, he’s ready to see an end to violence in the city.

“People are crying and mourning,” he said. People are burying their families. People don’t even got the money to bury their families.”

He wants to see police take the same approach to crime in Dunbar that they do in other parts of the city.

“If a crime happened on McGregor (Boulevard) like it happened over there on Central (Avenue), you know what I’m saying?” Nance said. “Black person killed a white person, bam got ’em. Black person kill a black person, nothing been done yet.”

Three men were arrested Saturday in the Thursday night shooting death of 21-year-old Zachary Michael Alexander Holmes at the Waterford Apartments on Central Avenue. No arrest has been made in the early Sunday morning shooting death of a 26-year-old man on South Street.

Kenyetta Farrell, a cousin of Nance, said the onus is on Fort Myers Police Chief Derrick Diggs, who came to the city last year after serving in Toledo, Ohio.

“They labeled you as being the great chief from Toledo,” Farrell said. “Do the same in Florida.”

Diggs has sought to put officers in closer contact with the community and build greater trust. Nance wants to see police take a diligent approach.

“Do your footwork like you do when the crimes happen in other areas,” Nance said. “You know what I’m saying? It don’t be no witnesses, but you come up with your man, because you do your footwork.”