With code of silence, Huntington Station stays violent

Twenty Suffolk County police officers were patrolling Huntington Station when a young man was shot to death execution-style Tuesday night while celebrating his 25th birthday on Station Avenue.

The police were in six sector cars, plus community outreach officers, and the gang unit. There also was a supervising sergeant, according to police.

Yet, none of that could stop a group of young men from sauntering past a house on Railroad Street and opening fire.

Clearly, adding police alone will not stop the violence.

It didn't take long Wednesday to sort out why, as I spoke to residents gathered near thick ribbons of police tape stretched across both ends of the block.

One young man said he was at the party when he heard five or six shots ring out. Another described partygoers throwing themselves to the floor and later stepping across a body on the front stoop.

No one - not one single person - said they had told their story to Suffolk police. And no one said they were planning to.

"We know who the gangs are," said one woman. "They know who we are too. Would you talk?"

It's the same sentiment I heard last month from residents who said they had witnessed another gang-related shooting on Church Street.

After a summer of gun violence in Huntington Station, one thing is certain: Not enough residents are speaking out. That has to change.

The residents I talked to Wednesday were not choosing silence out of some misdirected, no-snitch code. These people - many of whom are middle aged - are scared.

Suffolk police have added more nighttime patrol officers. And, from time to time, instituted roadblocks. Officers are now working out of a housing authority office. And, beginning Monday, video from 30 cameras in 20 locations will be streamed, live, into the office - where it will be monitored during the day by authority personnel and at night by two light-duty police officers.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said he also isn't ruling out the use of ShotSpotter, a system Nassau County uses to detect where shots are fired, and a registry for those convicted of gang-related activity, modeled on a sex offender registry.

Perhaps it's also time to go back to a system where each precinct has its own, dedicated gang unit - which would allow detectives to concentrate on tracking known gang members and developing deeper sources of information in communities on their own turf.

Levy said he thought a special countywide task force was more effective in bringing manpower to fighting gangs than smaller precinct units can.

Does the task force - which is now going after gang problems in four of Suffolk's seven police precincts - need more manpower?

Wednesday, Huntington Station residents told me they believed that the latest slaying was part of a series of violent, gang-related acts. In August, a group of men fired into a group on Church Street. One of the men shot on Station Avenue was also shot on Church Street, police said, confirming what residents had told me earlier.

Richard Dormer, Suffolk's police commissioner, said he could not comment on the continuing investigation.

"We need people who are willing to talk to us," Levy said. "If they don't feel safe talking to police, then they should talk to pastors, community leaders, whoever they feel safe talking to. But they need to talk."

Residents also can call the department's anonymous information line at 800-220-TIPS.

The slaying on Railroad Street was 1.1 mile away from Jack Abrams school, which was closed by the school district recently. It was closer, however, to Jefferson - another district school that my daughter once attended. And to Stimson, which is in the South Huntington school district.

The killing was closest, however, to Huntington Station's Head Start program at the community's Freedom Center, where the bloody crime scene was cleared 30 minutes before the facility's first day of school - for toddlers.