Police investigate shootings in North Park

Marcus Tinker, a member of the Christian Light Baptist Church, was with fellow members of the North Park Neighborhood Watch on one of their regular community walks last Friday at about 10:40 p.m.

The group has been conducting walks through the neighborhood since July, in the wake of a number of shooting incidents. Members ask residents how their night is going and what issues are on their minds, in the interest of reducing gun violence in the area.

“If we walk around on Friday nights and engage in conversation with people and they have an issue, we can try and talk things out with no violence,” said Tinker, a deacon-in-training. He recently started a Change.org petition calling for an end to gun violence in Long Beach as well.

But as the group made its way down East Pine Street last Friday, Tinker recounted, they heard gunshots nearby. Alarmed, they immediately called police.

“It was good to be out there so we could call it in right away,” Tinker said. “We could get some units over there quickly so nothing got out of hand.”

Though police said there were no reported injuries in Friday’s incident, it came on the heels of another shooting just two days earlier, on Nov. 4, at 3:48 p.m., across from a bus stop as children were getting home from school.

According to Police Commissioner Michael Tangney, the first shooting, at the intersection of National Boulevard and West Fulton Street, near the Channel Park Homes, injured a man who was a passenger in a vehicle. Evidence at the scene indicated that four shots had been fired at a vehicle, Tangney said, adding that the victim, who suffered a superficial wound, has been uncooperative.

Last Friday, Long Beach police spokesman Lt. Eric Cregeen said, officers responded to a report of shots fired on North Drive, off National Boulevard. “Officers canvassed the area … and were unable to find any shell casings,” he said.

The next morning, however, a homeowner reported a bullet hole in his car, which was parked on Sycamore Court. Long Beach detectives responded to the scene, and Nassau County police were called in to examine the vehicle and take fingerprints. Both incidents remain under investigation.