Gunshots ring out near Edgar playground Tuesday night

The Enterprise of Brockton
www.enterprisenews.com
Gunshots ring out near Edgar playground Tuesday night

Area was teeming with children and a youth baseball team was practicing at the time, witnesses say


Gunshots ring out as champs practice




The latest round of gunplay near James Edgar Playground in Brockton has neighbors dropping to the ground for cover.

By Maria Papadopoulos
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON — Members of the Brockton Post 35 American Legion baseball team were practicing at the James Edgar Playground around dinnertime Tuesday when a series of gunshots rang out.
"We couldn't see them but we heard bang, bang, bang, bang, then we saw the three kids running," said coach Dave Seropian, whose team won the state championships last week.
At least six police cruisers combed Winthrop, Brook, Dover, Newton and Fuller streets at 6:29 p.m. looking for the shooters after police received emergency 911 calls for shots fired at Fuller Street.
No injuries were reported.
"I was standing outside the car and bullets came flying by my head. We were just in the crossfire," said Tina, a 23-year-old neighborhood resident who dropped to the ground while holding an infant when the gunfire erupted.
"It's very scary because there was kids outside," she said.
State police who responded to the scene, along with Brockton detectives and officers, said two youths in a car reportedly got into an argument. The passenger got out of the car, and the youths began shooting at each other, according to state police and witnesses.
"It's too much," said one woman who asked not to be identified, one of dozens of Ward 2 residents who came out of their houses Tuesday after hearing the gunshots and seeing police combing streets nearby.
It was the latest report of gunfire near the Edgar playground in recent weeks.
Mateus Mendes, 18, was shot multiple times and critically wounded in a brazen daytime shooting near the Edgar playground on Winthrop Street July 25.
Tuesday's gunfire followed an incident on Pine Avenue late Monday night where a house on that street was shot at several times, piercing holes into the walls of children's bedrooms, according to witnesses. No injuries were reported in that shooting.
Police responded to Pine Avenue at 11:21 p.m. Monday after receiving reports of shots fired.
Residents say they are stunned by the recent spate of gun violence in the city.
"We're not used to it, for sure, because we never heard it before," Seropian said.
Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.

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