Suspect Arrested in Last Month’s Grand Avenue Murder Just as Another Shooting Happens
It’s been a rough spring on Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill. In mid-March, longtime Grand Avenue resident Gilbert Kelly was shot dead on one of the stoops where he often spent the night between Gates and Putnam. The police wire yesterday announced the arrest of a suspect in the March shooting, an 18-year-old kid who’d…
It’s been a rough spring on Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill. In mid-March, longtime Grand Avenue resident Gilbert Kelly was shot dead on one of the stoops where he often spent the night between Gates and Putnam. The police wire yesterday announced the arrest of a suspect in the March shooting, an 18-year-old kid who’d already been arrested and released last year.
And yesterday, according to emails we received from neighbors, there were several shots fired at the Clean Society cleaners up the street at the corner of Clifton Place, a longtime hotbed of suspicious activity. From what we gather, the owner was shot several times but not killed, escaping to the community garden next door. One tipster said he saw DEA agents taking cash and drugs out of the storefront.
We’ve been living on this stretch of Grand Avenue for almost a decade and have been hearing the excuses from law enforcement that entire time about how hard it is to crack down on the drug trade that is obviously at the root of much of the violence in this area. Like most residents, we suspect, we feel this has become a pretty tired line when everyone in the neighborhood knows the problem spots and has witnessed plenty of illegal activity themselves.
In the end, we don’t believe it is a question of whether the drug trade and the culture of violence around it can be stopped. It’s a matter of resources and political will. Back in 2009, former D.A. Joe Hynes teamed up with the Brooklyn North division of NYPD to put Operation Grand Slam into effect. (This followed a similar blitz in 2006.) They ended up arresting a couple of dozen people and indicting 11 but were not able to keep the pressure on, and new bad guys simply stepped in and filled the void. We need sustained pressure to adequately address this situation and we need it now.
We would humbly suggest that now would be a great time for new D.A. Thompson to put his head together with the new captain of the 88th Precinct, Peter Fiorillo, and clean this area up once and for all. Platitudes at community meetings aren’t getting the job done.
I think Mr. B’s just pissed he didn’t get his monogrammed American Appreal Tee back from the cleaners.
You replied under my comment so I guess you’re addressing me.
I don’t support drug dealing, but know that it’s part of society. It’s gonna happen. The ‘war on drugs’ has failed. Legalizing drugs will reduce criminal activity and crime.
who’s siding with shoot outs and street drug dealing?
maybe we can ask Ken Thompson to take a photo on his way home from work tonight..
Hello. They CHOSE to move into that area with that long established activity. They have no right to complain. NEXT!
Whether you lived in Clinton Hill for 2 seconds or 35 years, Clean Society is a known drug spot.. The police know about it, our council woman who lives down the street knows about it as does every person in the neighborhood..
I remember my first time in there 7 years ago.. Walking in a getting hit in the face with the scent of weed.. I then asked if they did dry cleaning thinking they were just smoking or just had smoked or something.. Everyone looked at me and suggested I take my dry cleaning somewhere else..
Through out the years I have watched as countless people have gone in to the place empty handed and walking out with plastic bags or book bags filled with things..
Now, if you walk down the street today, you can see two cars parked outside 293 grand, openly selling drugs out of the cars.. So, what do we say when the next shoot out happens, tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day.. What happens when some little kid gets shot. Do we cheer that at least the bullet came from a gun owned by someone from the original neighborhood?
Seriously, someone go down right now one building down from where the shooting took place, there is a group of people selling drugs 12 feet from where the police shut down yesterday..
I know Ken Thompson lives in this neighborhood, is he not capable of stopping crime on his own street?
Like it has to be either a place to buy drugs or it has to be a place to sip lates? There is no other option? is someone really going to suggest that closing down a violent drug den is one of the terrible things about Gentrification.
It’s crazy for me to believe there are people siding with shoot outs and drugs deals in the street. Your single minded bigotry is shocking.
legalize it!
true dat
agree.
just find it ironic that Mr. B wants drugs off the (his) streets but then says he doesn’t think can be stopped.
drugs will always be a part of society. If not on that corner than another.