BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2016) — With reports of gunfire on John and Lincoln streets by posters to THE PLANET, it came as scant surprise to learn of a shooting and murder at 343 Columbus Ave. early Sunday morning. The three-story house faces the entrance to John Street. Are they two separate incidents or was the Columbus shooting mistakenly identified as taking place on John? We were there today.

The murder scene at 343 Columbus Ave. Note the John Street intersection at right. The body of Joe Brown was found in the driveway with a single bullet in his chest. (Photo: Ben Garver, The Berkshire Eagle).

Police sources, speaking on condition of strict confidentiality, say it appears to be two separate events. That has not been reported elsewhere, but it may contain a clue.

THE PLANET was unable to get independent confirmation of separate shootings at John and Columbus, but it comes one week after a near-fatal shooting on Second Street and last night’s suspicious fire on Robbins Avenue. Neighborhood residents there, speaking with THE PLANET today, spoke of “a loud “boom” followed by instant fire. It bore all the markings of arson. All three incidents took place within a throw’s stone from downtown North Street.

Was Police Response Time Adequate?

THE PLANET published first word of the Columbus Avenue mayhem, before any other medium. RobEM posted at 6:09 a.m. of the incident police say occurred near 2 a.m. They identified the victim as Joe Brown, 38, who lived at the house. Preliminary information revealed Brown died from a single bullet fired into his chest. Brown answered a knock on the door, took a bullet, then staggered to the driveway, where he died.

Derek Gentile of The Berkshire Eagle added details to a report THE PLANET heard from neighborhood residents, who told us people were upset because “the cops took their sweet time.”

From Gentile’s story:

There was some comment by neighbors at the scene that police were slow to respond. But that was due to the nature of the initial report, according to Captain Stanley Caesar of the Pittsfield Fire Department.

The call initially came in as an unresponsive person, according to Caesar, who was also on the scene on Sunday morning. Fire Department records show the 911 call came in at 2 a.m. as an unresponsive person on Columbus Avenue, he said. The call came from a cell phone and was initially directed to the Massachusetts State Police.

Because it was a report of an unresponsive person and not a gunshot wound, the call was then forwarded to the Pittsfield Fire Department said Caesar. According to fire department records, a unit was on scene by 2:02 a.m., he said.

“That’s when we realized that it was not an unresponsive individual, but a gunshot injury,” said the fire captain. At that point, Pittsfield police were notified, he said.

Good work there by our colleague Gentile.

Impact of Shootings Hit North Street Hard

A resident of John Street told THE PLANET she heard “several men” arguing  around 1 a.m. Sunday followed by what sounded like a firecracker popping. She said she realized it was a gunshot when a neighbor came running telling her to get inside. Less than an hour later, someone gunned Brown down at 343 Columbus Ave., less than half a mile from North Street.

A downtown store owner, who asked that no name be used, said he feared the incident “would only make a bad summer worse.” He cited a steep drop in business, which he attributed to “the tearing up” of the street from Streetscape for the fourth year in a row and the escalating violence. “It’s so bad that [the city] has put up a sign saying that the stores are still open.”

Asked if he was satisfied with the city’s response to the situation, he said “No but really, what can  be done? No one listens.” What about Downtown Pittsfield Inc.? He laughed. “Are you kidding me?” He said Berkshire Business Equipment has pulled out of downtown, with R. J. Stohr Jewelers moving soon. He predicted “at least a couple more” businesses would abandon North Street before summer ends.

A woman who recently worked at Hotel on North said management there told staff to make no mention about trouble or violence in or near downtown. She said, “They wanted us to pretend everything was hunky dory.”

Gunfire, fire bombs, and empty streets would say otherwise.

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“The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling.” — Lucretius

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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