FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne's NBC) -- People living along and near the Wells Street corridor area say Saturday's homicide is just one example of what they call the "bad element" they've been trying to remove for years.
"It was like it kicked the air out of you," Bob Shoemaker says.
Shoemaker is president of the Bloomingdale neighborhood association.
He says Saturday's homicide in broad daylight at The Pantry bar was a huge setback, esepcially because it happened right as people were holding a picnic to celebrate progress against crime in the area.
"It was a devastating blow of what we're trying to accomplish and stuff. And here we've got a representative of Fort Wayne coming down here to see what we've done good at, and he has to hear something like that go on, live," he says.
"All of a sudden just around the corner we heard some gunshots," city councilman Geoff Paddock says.
Paddock says he was stunned to be so close to a fatal shooting, saying he's walked in the neighborhood and talked with discouraged residents several times in the past few months.
"Have seen and been disappointed in to see some decline particularly in the last few months with an escalation of some drug activity and even some violent crime," he says.
"You've got the combination of the drug dealers going in and out, the drunks going in and out, and this is exactly what we're dealt with," Shoemaker says.
While there has been added police presence over the past few weeks, Shoemaker says he'd like even more help from officers who he says tell him they can't do certain things because of the coronavirus -- especially, he says, with the large number of homeless people he says commit crimes nearby.
"It's a catch and release is what I understood it was a catch and release with the police officers. They catch them, release them. And they know that so they're doing anything they want to, and it's all the way from Broadway and Taylor all the way up there to State Street," he says.
Shoemaker says while working with police has made a significant improvement against drug use, vagrancy, and property crimes in the area, he's trying to arrange a meeting with Mayor Henry to explain how more work needs to be done.
"You just can't give up on it. If you give up on it then they're going to start feeding back," he says.
He says people in the Bloomingdale neighborhood and Wells Street corridor will continue their fight to clean their area up.
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August 25, 2020 at 05:34AM
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Residents near Wells Street corridor fed up with crime - Fort Wayne's NBC
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