After spate of violence, Brockton officials try to quell fear

February 21, 2008 02:46 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

BROCKTON -- After just over a week in which two people were shot dead and two people were left wounded by gunfire, city officials said today they are dedicating all available resources to breaking the wave of violence that has left residents in fear.

"The Brockton Police, the State Police, and all the other assets here in the City of Brockton have been working around the clock since the terrible homicide of Mr. Conley, the cab driver, last Saturday evening,'' said Timothy Cruz, Plymouth district attorney. He was flanked at an afternoon press conference by William K. Conlon, the chief of police, Mayor James Harrington, several city councilors, and representatives from the State Police, which is conducting patrols in the city and aiding current investigations.

"Every one of these shootings are the same,” Harrington said. “They all take a bite out of the community, they create fear. All we can tell people is that we’re doing every thing that we can possibly do. Right now it doesn't seem like enough, but we're going to continue to do everything we can do to bring all the resources that are available to solve this problem.''

The city is facing a $10 million budget deficit, Harrington said, which stretches the city's law enforcement arm "very thin.'' He said the city has benefited from help from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and other departments. "We're relying on their help, not because we're not capable, but because we just don't have the money to do it," he said.

The city has had four homicides and seven shootings this year.

Investigators in Brockton are being stymied by the same "no snitching'' mentality that police in Boston have encountered, Cruz said. "There's almost an honor in not coming forward, and that's unfortunate,” Cruz said. “The people who are law-abiding citizens in Brockton or in Plymouth County or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they can't stand for that.''

The motive in the shooting Wednesday of an 88-year-old resident appears to be a robbery, but the description of the suspect is scant, Cruz said. The fatal shooting Tuesday of a 15-year-old male from Boston appears to be a targeted attack. There is no apparent motive in the fatal shooting of the taxi driver over the weekend, Cruz said.