West Ward shooting
Police respond Tuesday night to the third West Ward shooting in four days.
(Kurt Bresswein | lehighvalleylive.com)
The latest spate of gunfire that ripped through Tuesday night's stillness has set some West Ward Easton residents on edge in what has amounted to the third such incident in a four-day span.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named because of the recent violence, woke to the unmistakable sound of gunshots just before 10 p.m. She said her children's insistence that she move from the home she and her late husband lived in for 63 years in the 100 block of North 13th Street has only grown.
RELATED: Easton's West Ward shootings follow months of violence (Map)
"But why should I let them make me leave?" the resident said of the violence in the area. "This is the home my husband and I made. I don't want to leave here. It'd be like leaving him."
But the gunshots were the latest in a worrisome trend she said has lasted for years. The long-time Easton resident said she and her husband's first home decades ago was at 128 N. 13th St. -- the site of the Nov. 29, 2007, gang-related triple-murder.
"At least that was confined to a house," she said. "Now they're firing guns in the street."
Although she said she believes the gunshots are gang scare tactics meant to announce territorial claims, she said that doesn't make them any less jarring. Easton police presence has increased and response is better than it's ever been, she added.
"There was a time they didn't even show up," she said. "It's not that way now."
The woman said she blames the West Ward's downhill slide to the movement of low-income housing out of South Side Easton. She said she's skeptical of the Mayor Sal Panto Jr.'s interest in her neighborhood and believes his main focus is on brushing up the Downtown. She shrugged off comments from the mayor posted on lehighvalleylive.com about the deployment of more resources to the West Ward and potential installation of cameras.
'I ought to find myself a bulletproof vest'
Another 13th Street resident, who also asked to be unidentified because of the recent violence, said she was outside on her porch having a cigarette when she heard the gunshots. They appeared to come from a tan-colored SUV, she said.
The SUV drove off, she said, leaving her shocked by what she heard.
"Oh, I could tell they were gunshots," she said. "I could tell."
Having lived on the block for seven years, the woman said she's now looking to move. Her 3-year-old daughter, she said, is beginning preschool and keeping the child near such violence seems wrong.
"I don't really need her to be around this kind of stuff," the woman said.
She said she'd happily support more surveillance cameras -- one on every street pole would still not be enough, she said. In the meantime, she joked about getting some protection before she steps outside for a cigarette after sundown.
"Next time I come out for a smoke, I ought to find myself a bulletproof vest," she said.
Mayor says West Ward a priority
The theory that the demolition of Delaware Terrace in the South Side is the main reason for the West Ward's current state is a common "misperception," according to Panto. The city's housing authority, he said, kept track of where residents ended up -- a third landed elsewhere in the South Side, a third left the city altogether and a third moved to the West Ward, he said.
Panto said the troublesome folks in the neighborhood aren't true residents and showed up there long after Delaware Terrace was gone.
"The issue here is new people that have moved in," the mayor said. "Every time we catch somebody, they're not native Eastonians. Most are very transient and haven't lived here for a very long time."
Although the neighborhood already has a fair share of cameras, Panto said he's looking into the costs of equipping the entire area with them.
"It's not a cure-all, but it's certainly a good tool," Panto said.
Police presence was already beefed up after Friday's and Saturday's shootings, he said. Officers will continue to keep a closer eye on the area during patrols as part of a problem-oriented policing approach, according to the mayor.
A push this year to bring a full court press on problematic landlords has started with seminars meant to provide landlords with the tools to craft a stronger lease. Panto said he hopes more and more of the city's landlords will step up and hold their tenants accountable.
"Of course, right now we're getting the good landlords, not the deadbeat landlords," Panto admitted. "But we're giving them tools to provide better leverage for eviction if it's needed."
That, he said, includes language forbidding drugs, criminal activity and more than three unrelated people living under the same roof. Criminal background checks should be commonplace, he added. Panto hopes to the see the city enact stiffer fines for code violations and begin issuing quality-of-life tickets for properties falling into disarray.
"There's nothing wrong with renting as long as the people you're renting to care about the neighborhood they're living in," said the mayor.
The next landlord training program, open to the entire public, is April 11 in city council chambers, the mayor said.
Police still searching for clues
Easton investigators are looking for a tan SUV they believed was involved in Tuesday night's shooting. Casings were discovered at the scene, but police found no property damage. Detectives are "actively continuing this investigation" and ask anyone with information to call Detective Matthew Rush at 610-250-6639 or the department's anonymous tip line at 610-250-6635.
The probes into the two other shootings also remain open.
Just after 9:50 p.m. Saturday night, police responded to a shooting in an alley behind in the 1000 block of Butler Street. Two homes were struck by gunfire and authorities said they were looking for a light-colored Hyundai, possibly a Sonata.
At 11:15 p.m. Friday shots rang out in the 300 block of South Warren Street. One home was hit during that incident, according to police.
Easton police Capt. Scott Casterline said city police made adjustments after the first shootings but they weren't in the area of North 13th Street.
"The reality is you can't be everywhere at once," he said.
Adjustments can be made with patrol, and while the city's surveillance cameras are not watched 24/7 -- even though they record full time -- at times an officer is kept off patrol to watch cameras in a specific trouble area, Casterline said.
"But we don't want to pull a guy off the road," Casterline said. "We'd rather have them in the neighborhood."
While Bethlehem uses 911 personal to watch its cameras and has had success in making arrest because of it, Easton gets dispatch services from the Northampton County emergency dispatch center in Upper Nazareth Township. Easton can't use those resources as camera watchers, he said.
Whatever changes in tactics that city police deploy -- and it's possible extra patrol cars make lawbreakers think twice, he said -- the ultimate goal is to do more than change behavior, Casterline said.
"We always try to make adjustments to prevent the next crime from happening. ... (But) we not only want to stop this, but catch who did it," Casterline said.
Detectives continue to investigate and "hopefully we get a break in this before someone gets hurt," Casterline said.
Tony Rhodin contributed to this report.