Parolee gunned down in front of Hempstead home

A parolee released from prison earlier this year was gunned down in front of his Hempstead Village home, police said Friday.

Melvin Wells became the latest victim to die from gunfire on Linden Avenue, a street just east of Peninsula Boulevard where two other men have been fatally shot since 2008.

Wells came outside at 8:35 p.m. Thursday and was shot by an assailant or assailants who fled, said Det. Sgt. Gregory Quinn, a supervisor of the Nassau police homicide squad.

Wells died on the sidewalk outside the home and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. He would have turned 40 on Thanksgiving Day.

Quinn declined to say if detectives are seeking a particular suspect but said they are pursuing all leads.

Wells' upstairs neighbor, Markus Crosley, 23, said he heard the gunfire and ran to find his friend dying on the sidewalk.

"I looked in his eyes, and it was scary and crazy at the same time - seeing somebody go like that," Crosley said.

He saw Wells' teenage son cradling his father in his arms. The two had been trying to rekindle a relationship after Wells' long prison stint, Crosley said.

"His son watched him die," Crosley said.

Wells had been working as a late-night associate at Walmart, Quinn said.

State prison records show Wells, who had previous convictions for assault and drug-dealing, was released from Attica in January after serving more than a dozen years for attempted murder in 1996. In that case, Wells was punched in the face by a teenager and later returned to the scene to stab the teen, according to the Nassau district attorney's office.

The block has been the scene of violence in the past:

On July 25, a man was shot near Linden and Evans avenues and then staggered to a house across from 133 Linden and collapsed. Police made an arrest in the shooting, and the case is pending.

In January 2008, a man shot his rival dead after a prior dispute; a man was arrested but a grand jury voted not to indict him.

Because of the shootings, village police Chief Joseph Wing said the force has intensified patrols in a surrounding six- to eight-block area.