Tuesday, November 18, 2008
By Ed Runyan
Four shooting episodes were reported in 36 hours in a small area.
WARREN — Police are investigating numerous episodes of gunplay in the southwest part of the city.
Trouble began Thursday afternoon with a vehicle being shot dozens of times, and it continued through the weekend with a house being shot up, a pedestrian being shot and a vehicle’s rear window being shot out.
In one of the episodes, a person was shot in the arm.
“As near as I can tell, there are two rival groups,” said Police Chief John Mandopoulos. He said it’s possible the two groups are responding to news that 20 police officers will be eliminated from the department through budget cuts effective Jan. 1.
“They see an opportunity to cash in,” he said, meaning that the groups see an opportunity to make money in drugs or other illegal activity and are preparing for that.
Mandopoulos said he has been in contact with the city schools and the two parties are taking extra steps, which he did not want to reveal, to protect the children from any violence.
The Thursday afternoon case involved a parked van that was hit with numerous gunshots — coming from as many as three weapons — at the corner of Tod Avenue and Oak Street Southwest.
The victim, who police believe had been hit by the gunfire, left the scene before officers arrived.
At about 3:30 p.m. Friday, police were called to the intersection of Hamilton Street and Austin Avenue Southwest, near Quinby Park, where a pedestrian reported being hit in the arm by gunfire coming from a AK-47 being fired from a van.
And at about 3:40 p.m., a 31-year-old Pearl Street man reported shots being fired into his house.
All three locations are within several blocks of one another.
Later Friday, at about 11:30 p.m., police received a report from a 48-year-old Warren woman who said she and her daughter were driving south on Highland Avenue at Third Street when she heard gunshots and discovered that the back window of her car had been shot out.
No injuries were reported.
At about the same time, two men reported that they were robbed, apparently at gunpoint, at a gas station on West Market Street near Tod Avenue.
Two men got in the victims’ vehicle with one of them pressing something against the back of the driver’s head and ordering him to drive. The men fled after the driver refused to drive the car to the rear of a building, according to a Warren police report.
Meanwhile, one woman living on Jefferson Street Southwest said she believes violence in her neighborhood occurs largely because police officers don’t think the southwest area of Warren is worth saving and don’t come into the neighborhood unless violence occurs there.
“They say it really isn’t worth coming over here,” said Judith Patterson, a longtime Warren resident who, along with her husband, reared a son on Jefferson Street.
“They say this side of town is going to pot. It’s not really worth worrying about,” she said, quoting remarks she and her neighbors have heard from police officers as recently as this summer.
“Southwest Warren is a high priority,” Mandopoulos said, refuting the woman’s claims. “That’s where we spend the majority of our time.”
runyan@vindy.com