Mother of homicide victim speaks out about Baker, says it’s time for change

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Since the Doug Baker took the oath to become Chief of Police in 2008, to the moment he was let go, there have been 100 homicides in Fort Myers and not all of them ended with the suspects behind bars.

“I’m sick of seeing what’s going on, you know what I mean?” Toyetta Simpson said.

Simpson is tired; tired of the crime and tired of nothing being done about it. Her five-year-old son, Andrew, was murdered in 2014. Charges were recently dropped against the only two suspects after a witness stopped cooperating. So when Simpson learned this morning that Doug Baker was no longer the Chief of Police, she decided it’s the perfect time to start fresh as a community.

“I think that this is the beginning of the part of change that the community is asking for,” Simpson explained.

She says she believes Baker did everything he could, however their seems to be a backlog of homicides and the numbers just keep racking up.

“There’s nothing that can be done for my child because he’s dead,” Simpson cried. “You know, it’s just that I’ve been finding myself crying more often for the living right now.”

According to the Fort Myers Police website, since Baker took office in 2008 there have been 100 homicides in his jurisdiction and dozens of those still remain unsolved.

Several Fort Myers residents say they don’t point all of the blame on Baker, but they believe someone new might be what’s best for the city.

“I don’t think it has to fall on his shoulders, I mean it’s not his fault that there’s all these murders going on at all,” one woman said. “I mean, it does have to get solved for sure and it has to be someone saying, ‘come on, let’s do this.'”