Monessen Police Investigating Drive-By Shooting

Monessen police are looking for two men involved in a drive-by shooting Tuesday afternoon.

City police were called to Somerset Street around 2:20 p.m. when neighbors heard gunfire.

Police Chief John Mandarino said the suspects, believed to be white or light-skinned black men in a black or dark blue sport utility vehicle, were traveling down Somerset Street when one of the men shot toward a house. The bullets struck three houses on the same block.

No injuries were reported.

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/8084970-74/police-monessen-shooting#ixzz3W0mGI026
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Fight, Shots Fired Lead To Arrest In Pottstown

Editor’s note:  This crap is WAY out of hand and there are two more months of hot weather left. Turn this guy in if you know who he is!  Somebody could have easily been killed.  As for the male in custody…beating up a young girl!  Your mother must be so proud.

POTTSTOWN — Police have charged two men in related incidents, including shots fired at a vehicle.

According to police, a fight planned between two juvenile girls happened near the Ricketts Center at 672 Beech St. at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday.

When the large group was chased from Beech Street, police said they moved to the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and North Warren Street.

The crowd of 40 to 50 people watching the fight included adults and children, police said.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130627/NEWS01/130629323/fight-shots-fired-lead-to-arrest-in-pottstown#full_story

Car Severely Damaged In Pottstown Drive-By Shooting

Editor’s note:  I think the headline says it all.  Pottstown leadership needs to take the bull by the horns and get tough on crime.  The incident happened while there was a group of community leaders gathered at the Ricketts Center trying to form a plan to clean up the core neighborhood.  How ironic.  

Here are some comments from Facebook on the subject:

WE WERE AT THE RICKETTS CENTER when the shooting happened, for that CARES Pottstown meeting – the Let’s Clean Up Ward 1 meeting????  Yeah…let’s do.  Is the boro going to hand out bullet proof vests to all the good people cleaning up?  It’s the least they could do.

All other efforts to make things better in this ward pale and seem superficial by the fact that there appears to be no real effort to clean up the root cause of the problems.

The mentality is-cite the property owner for a crack in the sidewalk.  All else doesn’t matter.

I’m beyond irritated by this.  We heard what we thought was illegal fireworks (again) last night. Didn’t look out the window until we went out last night.  Opened the door to find the intersection of Beech and Washington roped off and multiple police cars and officers out and about.  They were talking to people on my block.  We didn’t see anything but were told that it stemmed from an earlier incident that began at the Ricketts Center in the afternoon.

Here’s the paragraph in the Mercury regarding the shooting:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130626/NEWS01/130629487/car-severely-damaged-in-pottstown-drive-by-shooting