Reading has seen a recent increase in gun violence that left several people injured and one dead. The uptick in shootings can be attributed to gang disputes and disputes on social media, Police Chief Richard Tornielli told City Council at its committee of the whole meeting Monday night.
“Social media is an absolute problem when it comes to these events,” the chief said as he briefed council on the recent shootings.
The run of violence started when two teens were shot in the 1000 block of Spring Street on Sept. 13. A 16-year-old boy later died from his wounds.
An incident that followed the shooting was put on social media, and it further inflamed the situation, Tornielli said.
That was just one of several shootings that have occurred over the past two weeks.
Tornielli said investigators have not been able to directly connect the shootings to one another, but there are some commonalities.
“The majority of the violence has revolved around local gang disputes,” he said. “They are mostly personal in nature and propagate over social media, and during the last week several of these disputes took hold.”
In the past, gang disputes would be over drug territory, Tornielli said, but the current situation is different.
“This is simply individuals who feel like they are being disrespected on social media and taking it to guns,” he said.
That surprised some council members
“It’s an extremely frustrating situation that these people are fighting over the internet and then taking it out on each other,” said Council President Jeffrey S. Waltman Sr. “You can’t let every little comment force you to a gun and killing someone, it’s just crazy.”
The return to in-person school has also caused a spike in violence, Tornielli said.
Reading School District students were in virtual learning for almost all of the 2020-21 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students have returned to full in-person instruction.
“In the long term, we believe this will reduce violence, but it does appear to have caused a short-term spike,” Tornielli said. “Many of these children have been out of school for an extended period of time, and we’ve seen conflicts arising as they were brought back together.”
Police have investigated numerous threats or perceived threats at Central Middle School and Reading High School, Tornielli said.
“As issues arise and are talked about in the school, they’ve spiraled into rumor mills which have led to increased tension, threats at schools and spilled into violence outside of school,” he said. “Again, the main venue for these rumors has been social media.”
Police Chief Richard Tornielli
Investigators have a lot of leads in the cases, Tornielli said.
“But the social media posts that are out there are continuing to fuel this hate between these groups,” Tornielli said. “We’re not going to see an end to this until something breaks that cycle.”
A few things have hampered the police department’s ability to get ahead of the problems, Tornielli said.
“Number one is the lack of school resource officers within the school,” he said, noting that makes it difficult for police to get ahead with information.
The police department had four neighborhood officers who patrolled around the district’s buildings. In 2020, the department pulled those officers back into regular patrol beats because of staffing shortages, Tornielli said.
The city and school district was awarded a Department of Justice grant for four school resource officers. But the district and city have yet to put those officers back into those neighborhood beats.
Tornielli said a meeting is planned with the school district to discuss bringing the officers back.
Another event that triggered more violence was the arrest of Jairo Guerrero-Bautista, who is accused of being involved in the killing of three men on Moss Street in 2018, Tornielli said.
“This arrest warrant has appeared to reopen old disputes and cause another spike in violence related to that,” he said.
Police believe a shooting in the first block of North 11th Street is connected with two armed street robberies that took place at the same location, Tornielli said.
Another reason for the uptick in violence is the low bail and quick release of suspects arrested for violence or weapons charges, Tornielli said.
“We’re seeing individuals arrested for multiple gun violence who are being released on no bail, he said. “We had an individual who threatened a witness in a murder trial, in a courtroom, get released on no bail. The magisterial district justices, many of them from the county, who are giving these low bails or no bails aren’t helping us at all.”
More work, less talk
Mayor Eddie Moran put out a statement last week calling on City Council and the community to step up and help the police department.
“City government cannot solve the problem of crime by itself,” the statement said. “We need a “Community Call to Action” that includes everyone’s support and participation from nonprofit organizations, faith-based communities, and neighborhood associations. If your neighborhood association has been inactive, this is the time to bring it back to life. We cannot do this alone.”
Moran said the recent violence would be the first thing discussed at a priorities summit Wednesday night between council and the administration.
Council members agreed the topic needed to be addressed but suggested that another date be set aside.
“With all the other priorities we have on Wednesday, we don’t have enough time to really delve into this the way it needs to be,” said Councilwoman Marica Goodman-Hinnershitz. “Lets not try to turn what was to be a council, administration summit into a crime summit. I don’t think that’s going to work.”
A separate meeting can be set up for an in-depth discussion of what needs to be done, Managing Director Abraham Amoros said.
“This is a community call to action,” he said. “We need assistance from council.”
Councilwoman Donna Reed suggested that a crime summit be held with other law enforcement agencies.
Tornielli vehemently disagreed.
“We don’t need to sit down with state police, the sheriff and the feds, I meet with them on a regular basis,” he said. “We know how to fight crime. We know how to take care of the law enforcement side. What we need is action from the folks who like to talk a lot and actually roll up their sleeves and get out on the streets and help us.”
Waltman suggested the city’s youth commission get involved and help come up with a solution as well.
“They need to get in the middle of this and figure it out,” he said. “We need them to build some networks and some ideas.”
The police department’s community engagement coordinator Lt. Lance Lillis will take charge in meeting with community groups to address the violence, Tornielli said.
“He’s a leader and will take charge of this, I can guarantee you that,” Tornielli said. “Any organizations that want to give involved to reduce violence in our city, we will take the lead on it. The time to talk is over and get some work done.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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