Taking Back Neighborhood After Gang Shooting

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

Four shootings in Pasco over the weekend shook up several neighborhoods but this isn't just a Pasco problem. Gangs are causing trouble across the Tri-Cities. Action News checked back in with a Kennewick neighborhood caught in gang crossfire last month. So far, their improvements are paying off.

Story Published: Jul 13, 2010 at 6:19 PM PST

KENNEWICK, Wash. -- On on a hot Tuesday afternoon, Monopoly Park bustled with kids on their bikes and neighbors walking their dogs. Across the street, a family sat outside in the sunshine while neighbor Jeremy Rondo tidied up his yard. It's hard to believe this area, around Eighth Avenue and Date Street, has been a notorious spot for gang-related crime for years.

"They have kind of gone away, they're not out as much as they have been," Jeremy Rando explained of the gangs. Rondo's lived across from Monopoly Park for 10 years, during which he said his fence has been tagged by gang graffiti close to a dozen times and cars broken into. "I don't necessarily feel safer but I feel like my property's safer."

And it is. Rather than graffiti marring his fence or other signs of gang-related crime around, the Kennewick neighborhood is quiet and clean. A gang shooting in the park last month was the tipping point for Kennewick police to help neighbors turn it around.

"This is not the gang's turf," Kennewick Police Sergeant Ken Lattin said. "This is the residents of the City of Kennewick who own this property, these homes, this park and we want them to feel comfortable and safe."

Lattin explained that the vast majority of people in the neighborhood were good, hard-working people. So In the effort to them, Action News discovered Kennewick Police made two major changes: ramping up patrols and cleaning up the neighborhood. Lattin said there are patrol officers that are normally assigned to this area, but KPD assigned even more after the shooting for "higher visibility." Plus, after a meeting with neighbors, police asked neighbors to move all the junked and broken down cars to revitalize the area and drive out criminals.

"I feel safer," neighbor Charles Long said.

After canvassing the neighborhood, Action News found several other homeowners felt the way Long did: safe.

"Oh yeah," Victor Silva said, who's kids were riding bikes in the park. "After the shooting we were concerned but now my kids come out and it feels like nothing happened."

Despite the changes, Action News wanted to know if gangs still claimed the neighborhood as their "turf." "I wouldn't say that people moved away," Sgt. Lattin responded. "It's still possible that criminal gang members still reside here but there's no outward evidence of that. If everything's tagged, if we've got cars that are broken down, windows broken, it looks like a gang-infested neighborhood and we don't want that. We don't want that anywhere in Kennewick."

"I like to see people over in the park playing catch and doing the things you should be able to use a park for and not -- people shouldn't be afraid to go over there because there's hoodlums over there," Rondo continued.

Kennewick Police said they'll add extra patrols to neighborhood for as long as it takes to the keep the area safe. If you see something suspicious, call non-emergency dispatch at 509-628-0333.