When Shanaka Stokes, 25, of Wilde Lake, heard in April that a man had been fatally shot in broad daylight outside the Wilde Lake Village Center, she reacted with fear.

"I was very scared because I have little kids, a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old," she said, adding that her children regularly play outdoors and visit the village center.

Since the April 9 shooting, in which 20-year-old Columbia resident Bryan Antoine Adams was killed, Stokes said she credits county police with reassuring her that her neighborhood is safe.

"We see them every day and that reassures me that we're in a good place," Stokes said of police.

Following the April 9 shooting, police arrested Antajuan Lawntee Wilson, 19, of Columbia, and charged him with first-degree murder in Adams' killing.

Stokes was among those who participated in National Night Out, the Aug. 5 event in which police and residents gather to promote safe neighborhoods.

A pizza party at Wilde Lake's Slayton House was one of 30 block parties and events across the county.

Stokes said she attended the event in order to talk to her neighbors and police officers about crime and other happenings in her community.

Sgt. Ricky Lee, of the Howard County Police Department, who attended the Slayton House event, said National Night Out fosters a community spirit in which neighbors come together to support each other in the fight against crime.

"In policing, it helps if the community as a whole comes together," Lee said. "If people know that someone is watching, you're less likely to become a victim."

Columbia resident Chris Reiher, 42, said free pizza lured him to the Slayton House event after having taken his daughter to an art camp there earlier in the day.

He added that the April shooting concerned him.

"I'll admit to you, it's disconcerting," Reiher said, adding that the shooting seemed like an isolated incident that had not deterred him from enrolling his daughter in the art camp. "If things start happening with greater frequency, I'd have to consider ... what alternatives I'd like to pursue."

Increased police presence

Across town, in Oakland Mills, residents staged another National Night Out event in the community's village center.

Some residents there spoke of the May 17 shooting death of 23-year-old Columbia resident Jason Batts outside an Oakland Mills apartment complex.

Police have arrested four men in relation to the shooting.

Oakland Mills resident Lynette Locke, 54, said she was pleased to see increased police patrols in the neighborhood since the shooting.

"It's quieted down some," she said. "There's more police presence. There's more (police) cars around. I'm glad to see that."

Locke added she still observes groups of young people loitering and drinking near the village center and that she intended to talk to police that evening about the problem.

Pfc. Rick Cumby, an officer assigned to the Oakland Mills area, said that in the months since the fatal shooting, police had helped citizens set up three neighborhood watch programs and that officers had increased bicycle patrols to try to cut down on crime.

Shannon Burbank, of Oakland Mills, who attended the party with her 18-month-old son, said the shooting in May had not stopped her from getting out and about.

Burbank said she attended the National Night Out party in a show of support for her community.

"I feel very safe in Howard County," she said.

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