By Robert Mills
Lowell Sun
LOWELL, Mass. — Four people were injured in a drive-by shooting on Smith Street in the Lower Highlands on Sunday night as multiple neighbors reported hearing at least 10 gunshots fired in two bursts.
Police were called to 165 Smith St., at 9:34 p.m., when someone called 911 and reported the shooting and that multiple people were shot.
Officers arrived less than a minute later and immediately reported that there were “at least two or three victims.” Seconds later, the same officer updated that four people were shot.
The victims were two men and two women, all of whom remained unidentified last night.
Deputy Police Superintendent Arthur Ryan said all four were expected to survive. Sources said most of the gunshot wounds were to arms and legs.
One woman at the scene who screamed at the firefighters and EMTs trying to help her was shot once in each leg and once in a shoulder.
Police and nearby residents, all of whom declined to give their names, said no one got a good look at the vehicle from which the shots were fired.
Multiple neighbors reported hearing two sets of gunshots, with five or six shots in the first batch, followed by a two-to-three-second pause, and then five or six more shots.
The victims were taken to Lowell General Hospital.
A neighbor who lives next door said she heard six gunshots initially, and immediately grabbed her children.
“I threw my kids on the floor,” she said.
She lives in a home with an 8-month-old, a 20-month-old, a 3-year-old, a 9-year-old and three teenagers.
A man who lives across the street said he also ran for his children when he heard the gunshots, and pulled his 3-year-old, 8-year-old and 11-year-old into the back of the house, away from the gunfire.
The incident comes in the wake of another multiple shooting at Tedeschi Food Shop on Bridge Street on Aug. 29 in which three people were shot. Two men were shot during separate incidents in the early-morning hours of Aug. 26.
Police have boosted patrols and kept members of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council on standby on recent weekends in case of violence.
Lowell police have also asked state police to help them patrol trouble spots in the city, and the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department has been parking its mobile command center at strategic points in the city to increase police visibility. Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee has said the extra patrols are being paid for with money from the Shannon Grant, which funds anti-gang initiatives.
Gregg Croteau, executive director of the United Teen Equity Center in Lowell, said his organization is planning to organize a “community response” to the violence within the next 48 hours. For more information on that effort, visitwww.UTEC-Lowell.org .
Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call Lowell police at 978-937-3200 or Crimestoppers at 978-459-TIPS (8477). Information can also be sent to police via Text-a-Tip, by texting TIP411 (847411) with the subject “LPDTIP.”
Tipsters can remain anonymous, but can receive up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.