Neighbor on Delamaine Drive: "I am afraid to walk out my front door."

Posted at: 07/13/2012 11:17 PM
By: Amanda Ciavarri | WHEC.com

Rochester police say violent crimes in the city of Rochester are up almost 5%. The chief made the announcement just hours before a double shooting in the city.

The shooting on Delamaine Drive left one person dead and another seriously hurt.

A number of neighbors tell News10NBC this was "bound to happen." They say, with the illegal activity that happens in that area, it was just a matter of time.

Anna Mericle says it's the first time she's seen a death on her street, but it wasn't the first time she's seen suspicious behavior.

"The neighborhood itself isn't bad, most of the people who live on here are quiet," Mericle tells News10NBC. She says she's worried that people from other neighborhoods come to her neighborhood to sell drugs.

Her husband calls the street a walk-up pharmacy.

Police have not said whether or not Friday's shooting was connected to drugs. They did say the two victims were outside on the road when they were approached by someone and both shot. Police believe there was only one shooter.

Friday's shooting happened just hours after Chief James Sheppard spoke about an increase in violence crime. He said the solution has to include getting guns off the streets.

"The more guns we take off the street, hopefully there will be less incidents of violence from using those guns. With the number of guns we've already taken off or the number of guns we've taken in a short period of time, we're hoping that starts to have an impact that we'd like to see in terms of people choosing not to shoot each other, having the means to shoot each other, going to other means to settle their disputes," Chief Sheppard says.

He says police are taking guns out of criminals' hands. 522 illegal guns have been seized in the first six months of 2012, almost a hundred more than average in the last 5 years.

Mericle says that isn't enough, and after what happened on her street Friday, she wants to move.

" I just told my husband today that this is a little too close to me. I can't even come out of my house. I am afraid to walk out my front door, cause they are at my front door. So yeah this is too close," Mericle says.

Police still haven't release the names of the two shooting victims. Police say there were a lot of people out today because of the nice weather when the shooting happened, so they are hoping someone will come forward with more on what happened. 

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