Daytime shooting highlights Bellone issues

A row of school buses waited patiently outside the back of the St. Hugh of Lincoln parish center in Huntington Station Monday afternoon for young children traveling home.

The only outward sign of the nearby shootings of three young men in broad daylight a day before was a broken line of yellow police tape on a home farther up First Avenue at Pulaski Road.

Another day, another shooting in Huntington Station. But this time it was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

"How brazen," said County Executive-elect Steve Bellone, whose wife has relatives who live in Huntington Station. "You think things like this happen at 3:30 in the morning, but 3:30 on a weekend afternoon?

"Huntington Station is a great community filled with hardworking people who want to be safe," he said, "but to have something like this happen in the afternoon shows how badly Suffolk County has failed. I intend to change that."

The latest violent incident highlights key issues Bellone will face when he takes office Jan. 1. But just how will his administration deal with gangs and violence and guns that have plagued Huntington Station, and a host of other county communities, for years?

Suffolk police over the weekend said the shooting of three young men -- who were surrounded by as many as 10 others before guns were drawn -- likely is gang-related. The three victims survived. So did a police officer and an elderly driver, whose car was hit when the police officer responded to the scene.

There was no indication that ShotSpotter, a computerized system that pinpoints the location of gunshots, was up and running -- there or in any other part of Huntington Station. Police told a Newsday reporter that the ShotSpotter information on the shooting hadn't come in yet.

So what does Bellone plan to do to stop the cycle of violence?

First, he said, he would put intelligence officers back into precincts to gather information from the community about crime. He also said he would break up County Executive Steve Levy's countywide gang unit task force and put those units back into precincts.

"I will set it out as policy that we will go after these gangs, with a real strategy and the resources to implement that strategy," Bellone said in an interview. "We won't have a roving gang unit that was destined to fail."

Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department, which is investigating allegations of discriminatory policing against Latinos in Suffolk, had recommended the county return gang units to the precincts.

Bellone, who said he had not yet talked to Justice Department officials, said he would build better relationships with federal and other law enforcement agencies. Noting that he was making observations since he has not assumed control of the department, Bellone said he also would wait to see whether a court determined the legality of a Levy initiative to stop gang members from gathering in Wyandanch.

"It could be a useful tool, but I also view it as a distraction," Bellone said. "It's something that plays well for the media, but it can also be a distraction from the fact that we do not have a focused strategy for taking down gangs."

Bellone said he would like to explore ways to put more police on the street and maybe even see a new police recruit class at some point, but it depends on the county's budget.

"We have challenges there, but we have to find some creative ways to get the resources where we need them and stay within the budget," he said.

As for appointing a new police commissioner, Bellone said he planned to make some announcement about the process soon. He said he had no top candidate in mind, although he acknowledged that there were some names he might be considering. Bellone said he was still looking.

"I will extend the search as far as necessary to get the right person in place," he said.