-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
-
Be sure to enter the NES/Pioneer Valley Arms February Giveaway ***Smith & Wesson SD9VE 9MM***
Teens Shot at Fitchburg Party
- Thread starter FPrice
- Start date
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
Garys
NES Member
I didn't, but I'm not surprised. My daughter went to Fitchburg State College for one year. Lot's of gang activity, including the area around the school. She said it wasn't at all unusual to hear gun fire in the neighborhood where her dorm was.
I'm glad she transferred.
Gary
I'm glad she transferred.
Gary
One must remember, that even in a free state, say, FL, where CCWs are a
lot more commonplace, that the CCW/capita rate is still pretty low
overall. The chances of a CCW being present at any one given incident
is still not super high.
In MA, that rate is going to be like bottom of the bucket low. I don't
know what the # of licenses issued here is, but I'd venture a safe guess
that most license holders probably don't carry a gun on a routine
basis. Out of the "gunpersons" I know locally, I know for a fact
about 50% of them don't carry on even a remotely routine basis.
I guess we'll hear more about this as it develops. The report doesnt
seem to talk extensively about what really went on at the park.
-Mike
Garys
NES Member
Mike,
You're talking about legal carry, I'm not sure the Tele_Mark was referring to that. I'd think illegal carrry might be more expected in that situation.
Gary
No, I specifically meant legal carry. According to the story on Ch. 5 news, there were quite a few adults present. The way they are granting LTC-ALP's in this area (when I applied, I was told they were backed up a month processing new liscenses), I'd think there would be a good chance of someone carrying there. I guess I'm wrong, and drgrant has a good explaination.
Seems like everytime I'm on the verge of "why the hell am I carrying this around with me nearly 24 hours a day?", something like this happens close (and not so close, with the Amish), to remind me.
I'm going riding in NH today and will be driving through Manchester. I'll be leaving the snubby at home. I'll have my P99 with two extra mags.
Seems like everytime I'm on the verge of "why the hell am I carrying this around with me nearly 24 hours a day?", something like this happens close (and not so close, with the Amish), to remind me.
I'm going riding in NH today and will be driving through Manchester. I'll be leaving the snubby at home. I'll have my P99 with two extra mags.
Another article. This is just sad. Saima is in a very quiet, wooded area. They have some really nice XC ski trails running through it. This is almost as out of place as the Amish shooting. God, I wish a family member had been carrying.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/09/girls_dream_birthday_party_ends_in_bloodstained_tragedy/
Girl's dream birthday party ends in bloodstained tragedy
One man killed; suspect is held
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | October 9, 2006
FITCHBURG -- Since February, the family had planned the daughter's 15th birthday party.
She would arrive in a stretch limousine, walk into a hall decorated with silk flowers and pink and purple balloons, and slice into a cake so lavish that it could be served at a wedding.
But the girl's dream turned into a night of bloodshed Saturday, when an assailant fired into the foyer of the hall, authorities said. One guest was killed and three others were wounded.
Yesterday, police arrested Xavier A. Santiago, 17, of Fitchburg, and charged him with the shooting, Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte said.
Julio Colon, 24, of Fitchburg, was taken to Leominster Hospital after the shooting, where he later died, Conte said.
Angel Soto, 51, Jonathan Villot, 15, and Pedro Villot, 30, all of Fitchburg, were hospitalized.
Santiago, 17, is scheduled to be arraigned in Fitchburg District Court tomorrow on one charge of murder and three charges of armed assault with intent to murder, Conte said.
A witness identified Santiago as a suspect, the statement said, and he was taken to the Fitchburg Police Department for questioning yesterday. He was then arrested.
The shooting occurred at about midnight Saturday at the party, which was attended by about 100 people, at the Finnish Center at Saima Park.
``This is just so devastating," said Linda Byrne , the rental agent for the center . Byrne rented the hall to the family, whom she would identify only as the Hernandezes.
Byrne and other park officials said the party was for the teenager's ``quinceañera," a young woman's 15th-birthday celebration, which in many Spanish-speaking countries marks the transition to womanhood.
The Hernandez family had invited dozens of guests for the celebration, and wanted that the party be a success, Byrne said.
They ``had spent thousands of dollars on this," she said.
Byrne appeared briefly at the party at about 9 p.m. to drop off orange juice and soda at the banquet hall, a white cinderblock-and-wood building that can fit about 200 people.
The hall is set back several hundred feet from the road.
When she arrived, the quinceañera party was in full swing.
Teenage girls were dressed in ballgowns, some with petticoats, and many of the boys wore tophats, according to people who saw the party.
Some guests had arrived in white stretch limos.
At 11 p.m., the bartender closed the bar. Shortly afterward, in the parking lot, a fight erupted, according to witnesses.
Saima Park representatives said that an argument began between guests and someone who was either crashing the party, or who had been thrown out.
Then shots rang out, Byrne said.
The bartender grabbed the children, some as young as 2 years old, and huddled with them behind the bar. People began screaming.
When emergency workers arrived, the scene was chaotic, said Ralph Alario , deputy chief of the Fitchburg Fire Department.
Guests fled in cars. Relatives and friends threw themselves on top of the wounded, holding them and weeping, Alario said.
In the morning, blood remained in the foyer, said Michelle Lapointe , 29, who lives next to the banquet hall and who is a groundskeeper for the park. The cake was all but untouched, she said.
In the woods, outside the banquet hall, floated purple balloons that were slowly deflating. On the balloons the words, ``Mis Quince Años ," or ``My 15 years old," had been etched in white.
In the three years she has lived near the hall, Lapointe said, she has never seen such violence.
``This part of town is really quiet and peaceful," she said.
By early yesterday afternoon, workers from a company that cleans up hazardous waste had wiped away evidence of the attack.
Mr. Hernandez, who declined to give his first name, was too distraught to speak about the attack, Byrne said.
``This is just so devastating," Byrne said. ``He's so bereaved."
She described the family as ``lovely and loving" people who live in Fitchburg.
Before the party, she said, the family had offered her a flower centerpiece as a thank-you gesture.
Mr. Hernandez did not know the people responsible for the violence, Byrne said.
Leo Roiko , 79, a member of the park's Board of Directors, who was born in Fitchburg and who said he has been going to the park since he was a little boy, said he could not recall a shooting at the hall.
``I just can't believe it," he said yesterday. ``It's been such a happy, peaceful place."
Byrne said she is concerned about the trauma the shootings will have on the Hernandez family.
``We can fix the bullet holes," she said.
``We can clean the blood from the rug. But they can never forget that day."
Maria Cramer can be reached at [email protected]
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/09/girls_dream_birthday_party_ends_in_bloodstained_tragedy/
Girl's dream birthday party ends in bloodstained tragedy
One man killed; suspect is held
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | October 9, 2006
FITCHBURG -- Since February, the family had planned the daughter's 15th birthday party.
She would arrive in a stretch limousine, walk into a hall decorated with silk flowers and pink and purple balloons, and slice into a cake so lavish that it could be served at a wedding.
But the girl's dream turned into a night of bloodshed Saturday, when an assailant fired into the foyer of the hall, authorities said. One guest was killed and three others were wounded.
Yesterday, police arrested Xavier A. Santiago, 17, of Fitchburg, and charged him with the shooting, Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte said.
Julio Colon, 24, of Fitchburg, was taken to Leominster Hospital after the shooting, where he later died, Conte said.
Angel Soto, 51, Jonathan Villot, 15, and Pedro Villot, 30, all of Fitchburg, were hospitalized.
Santiago, 17, is scheduled to be arraigned in Fitchburg District Court tomorrow on one charge of murder and three charges of armed assault with intent to murder, Conte said.
A witness identified Santiago as a suspect, the statement said, and he was taken to the Fitchburg Police Department for questioning yesterday. He was then arrested.
The shooting occurred at about midnight Saturday at the party, which was attended by about 100 people, at the Finnish Center at Saima Park.
``This is just so devastating," said Linda Byrne , the rental agent for the center . Byrne rented the hall to the family, whom she would identify only as the Hernandezes.
Byrne and other park officials said the party was for the teenager's ``quinceañera," a young woman's 15th-birthday celebration, which in many Spanish-speaking countries marks the transition to womanhood.
The Hernandez family had invited dozens of guests for the celebration, and wanted that the party be a success, Byrne said.
They ``had spent thousands of dollars on this," she said.
Byrne appeared briefly at the party at about 9 p.m. to drop off orange juice and soda at the banquet hall, a white cinderblock-and-wood building that can fit about 200 people.
The hall is set back several hundred feet from the road.
When she arrived, the quinceañera party was in full swing.
Teenage girls were dressed in ballgowns, some with petticoats, and many of the boys wore tophats, according to people who saw the party.
Some guests had arrived in white stretch limos.
At 11 p.m., the bartender closed the bar. Shortly afterward, in the parking lot, a fight erupted, according to witnesses.
Saima Park representatives said that an argument began between guests and someone who was either crashing the party, or who had been thrown out.
Then shots rang out, Byrne said.
The bartender grabbed the children, some as young as 2 years old, and huddled with them behind the bar. People began screaming.
When emergency workers arrived, the scene was chaotic, said Ralph Alario , deputy chief of the Fitchburg Fire Department.
Guests fled in cars. Relatives and friends threw themselves on top of the wounded, holding them and weeping, Alario said.
In the morning, blood remained in the foyer, said Michelle Lapointe , 29, who lives next to the banquet hall and who is a groundskeeper for the park. The cake was all but untouched, she said.
In the woods, outside the banquet hall, floated purple balloons that were slowly deflating. On the balloons the words, ``Mis Quince Años ," or ``My 15 years old," had been etched in white.
In the three years she has lived near the hall, Lapointe said, she has never seen such violence.
``This part of town is really quiet and peaceful," she said.
By early yesterday afternoon, workers from a company that cleans up hazardous waste had wiped away evidence of the attack.
Mr. Hernandez, who declined to give his first name, was too distraught to speak about the attack, Byrne said.
``This is just so devastating," Byrne said. ``He's so bereaved."
She described the family as ``lovely and loving" people who live in Fitchburg.
Before the party, she said, the family had offered her a flower centerpiece as a thank-you gesture.
Mr. Hernandez did not know the people responsible for the violence, Byrne said.
Leo Roiko , 79, a member of the park's Board of Directors, who was born in Fitchburg and who said he has been going to the park since he was a little boy, said he could not recall a shooting at the hall.
``I just can't believe it," he said yesterday. ``It's been such a happy, peaceful place."
Byrne said she is concerned about the trauma the shootings will have on the Hernandez family.
``We can fix the bullet holes," she said.
``We can clean the blood from the rug. But they can never forget that day."
Maria Cramer can be reached at [email protected]
J
JellyFish
An absolute lack of values and consideration for others demonstrated yet again. No sense of responsibility or right and wrong. Ugh.
![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
Chuck
NES Member
Seems to me that's wrong in the first place. When I was a teenager hanging out in a public park after midnight -- I was definately up to no good. And their were adults there?
As for percentage carrying, the laws are confusing and strict enough to the point I don't half the time. For example this weekend I didn't carry when I drove to the cape because I was going to have to leave it locked in a carrying case in the car with my wife driving it while I played golf -- I don't think that's legal. Is it? It was a bad decision because at around midnight when I was playing with our pup outside a pack of coyotes starting going nuts just the other side of the street (100 acres of conservation land). I think they found the bunnies my lab scared up. The suckers were making noise like a pack of hyenas. I wish right then I had a pistol.
-= chuck
Similar threads
