SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – – Neighbors along Turtle St. in Syracuse haven’t been able to sleep much this summer.
At the corner of Turtle and North Salina St., late night block parties have become a problem.
Early Sunday morning Syracuse Police ended up in that area after a man opened fire into a crowd of more than 200 people.
The shooter was identified as Devonaire King. Officer were able to take King into custody without incident.
Michael Musick, who has lived along Turtle Street for a few years, head gunshots stream by his window.
“It is probably every three or four weeks that you hear gunshots at these street parties,” Musick said. “It has to stop now before somebody gets killed.”
Musick says the street gets overrun on Friday and Saturday nights by partiers who take up the whole street. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and Police Chief Kenton Buckner say more officers will be patrolling that area this weekend.
“One of the challenges we have is that we have very limited latitude when engaging individuals on that scene and in most cases, they only qualify for an appearance ticket. If you have 300 people being unruly or refusing to move along and the worst I can give you is an appearance ticket that make it very difficult for us to move those crowds along.”
Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner
Syracuse Police say they are working with The Bunny Club and Lookers, two establishments on that block, to try and limit crowds spilling over into the streets.
The owner of Lookers tells NewsChannel 9 he has been working with the city, but says it is not a Lookers problem, but a City of Syracuse problem.
He says the outside party continued well after Lookers closed Saturday night and that he has asked police to do more about the problem.
