Hours after a teenager was gunned down in what law enforcement officials suspect was a gang-related execution, the police chief in this small city 30 miles north of Boston sat down with a host of federal agents and asked for help.
Juan Espinal, 18, a former student at two area high schools, was shot multiple times at close range with a .40-caliber handgun. It is the third suspected execution-style killing in the city in six months.
Officials, including Police Chief James Fitzpatrick, are worried about what the coming warmer
weather may bring. Fitzpatrick told the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune that the meeting with federal agents was previously scheduled, but in light of the ongoing violence, it took on a new sense of urgency.
Fitzpatrick hopes a unified force of federal drug and law enforcement agents, state and local police can place enough pressure on the criminal element to tamp down the violence that has plagued the city in recent months.
"Either guns or drugs or a combination of the two are believed to be the nexus to the homicides," Fitzpatrick said.
It's unclear at this point if the three murders since October are related. What is certain, however, is that authorities are running right at the problem. Fitzpatrick is bringing together federal agents, state police, corrections officers and local police in an intense effort to get guns off the street and gather intelligence on drug dealers, users, gang members and guns.
Lawrence detectives worked with federal agents and state police in a heroin-related sting of similar magnitude last summer. More than 300 arrests were made, the vast majority of them on drug-related charges.
Illegal drugs remain a priority. But with spring and summer approaching, police are also targeting weapons.
"We want to make it very uncomfortable for people to be walking around with weapons and carrying weapons by putting a lot of heat on the street," said police Capt. Roy Vasque, a 25-year officer and commander of Lawrence detectives.
"Definitely, this is going to be a concentrated effort to get ahead of the spring and summer months ... If we make them uncomfortable, we'll have an impact on gang violence," Vasque said.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Drug Enforcement Agency are being pulled in, along with state troopers and a special investigator from the local sheriff’s department.
Fitzpatrick said the sheriff's investigator will be a conduit for criminal information running from the streets to Middleton Jail and vice versa.
A Lawrence detective will also be deputized as a ATF agent, Fitzpatrick said. The expertise from the "combination of agencies" will then be deployed at a variety of "hot spots" in the city over the next several weeks, he said.
Fitzpatrick stressed he wants the areas made "inhospitable" to all criminals. Some feel if police "aren't out there and up in your face," they feel as though "the cops aren't going to bother me and they will just continue carrying on the street," he said.
According to police, drugs may have played a role in the two earlier, unsolved murders. On Oct. 16, a 34-year-old man was shot on Haverhill Street and later died at a Boston hospital. He was identified at Jorge Luis Aristo Viscaino.
Then, on Feb. 16, a 46-year-old man was gunned down a mile away at the intersection of Avon and Trinity streets. Juan Moreta Perello was identified as the victim.
Fitzpatrick said he plans to be a focal point between all of the agencies, which have a tendency to work "in silos," he said, meaning they tend to operate independently.
"I need to bring these agencies together," he said.
USA - OH.
Juan Espinal, 18, a former student at two area high schools, was shot multiple times at close range with a .40-caliber handgun. It is the third suspected execution-style killing in the city in six months.
Officials, including Police Chief James Fitzpatrick, are worried about what the coming warmer
weather may bring. Fitzpatrick told the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune that the meeting with federal agents was previously scheduled, but in light of the ongoing violence, it took on a new sense of urgency.
Fitzpatrick hopes a unified force of federal drug and law enforcement agents, state and local police can place enough pressure on the criminal element to tamp down the violence that has plagued the city in recent months.
"Either guns or drugs or a combination of the two are believed to be the nexus to the homicides," Fitzpatrick said.
It's unclear at this point if the three murders since October are related. What is certain, however, is that authorities are running right at the problem. Fitzpatrick is bringing together federal agents, state police, corrections officers and local police in an intense effort to get guns off the street and gather intelligence on drug dealers, users, gang members and guns.
Lawrence detectives worked with federal agents and state police in a heroin-related sting of similar magnitude last summer. More than 300 arrests were made, the vast majority of them on drug-related charges.
Illegal drugs remain a priority. But with spring and summer approaching, police are also targeting weapons.
"We want to make it very uncomfortable for people to be walking around with weapons and carrying weapons by putting a lot of heat on the street," said police Capt. Roy Vasque, a 25-year officer and commander of Lawrence detectives.
"Definitely, this is going to be a concentrated effort to get ahead of the spring and summer months ... If we make them uncomfortable, we'll have an impact on gang violence," Vasque said.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Drug Enforcement Agency are being pulled in, along with state troopers and a special investigator from the local sheriff’s department.
Fitzpatrick said the sheriff's investigator will be a conduit for criminal information running from the streets to Middleton Jail and vice versa.
A Lawrence detective will also be deputized as a ATF agent, Fitzpatrick said. The expertise from the "combination of agencies" will then be deployed at a variety of "hot spots" in the city over the next several weeks, he said.
Fitzpatrick stressed he wants the areas made "inhospitable" to all criminals. Some feel if police "aren't out there and up in your face," they feel as though "the cops aren't going to bother me and they will just continue carrying on the street," he said.
According to police, drugs may have played a role in the two earlier, unsolved murders. On Oct. 16, a 34-year-old man was shot on Haverhill Street and later died at a Boston hospital. He was identified at Jorge Luis Aristo Viscaino.
Then, on Feb. 16, a 46-year-old man was gunned down a mile away at the intersection of Avon and Trinity streets. Juan Moreta Perello was identified as the victim.
Fitzpatrick said he plans to be a focal point between all of the agencies, which have a tendency to work "in silos," he said, meaning they tend to operate independently.
"I need to bring these agencies together," he said.
USA - OH.
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