Whitehall residents launch grass-roots effort to fight crime

Minutes after sunset on a clear November night, two groups faced off and exchanged insults in the courtyard of a Whitehall apartment complex. The situation escalated, four people drew guns and at least two started firing. After five to nine gunshots, Gregory L. Smith, 28, of Youngstown, lay fatally wounded. It was the eighth homicide in Whitehall this year, one of the highest annual homicide numbers ever recorded in the suburb, which is just a bit more than 5 square miles and has a population of