Brentwood community meeting set to discuss shootings

A community meeting in Brentwood on Wednesday is intended to give residents a chance to express their concerns about recent shootings that have killed three people and injured six others, Suffolk County Legis. Ricardo Montano said.

A shooting last week that left one man dead and another in critical condition was the fifth in the community in less than a year.

Calling the meeting a "speak out," Montano (D-Brentwood) said Thursday: "People are living in fear and are outraged at what's going on. This is an opportunity for the community to express itself and say what they want done about this."

Montano said he's invited civic groups, elected officials and Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer to attend the meeting, set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Brentwood Public Library.

In the Feb. 17 shooting on Timberline Drive, David Sandler, 20, of Brentwood, was killed and Aaron Galan, 20, also of Brentwood, was critically injured. Suffolk homicide detectives are investigating the shooting.

The shootings happened near the Brentwood grocery store on Timberline Drive where worker Miguel Peralta, 57, was shot and killed in a September robbery.

Just blocks away, a 13-year-old boy, Wilson Batista Jr., was shot and wounded in June while playing basketball in Timberline Park. That shooting sparked an outcry over what police said was gang violence in Brentwood and neighboring Central Islip.

In November, a teen was shot dead at a party on American Boulevard, and in August four men were shot at a birthday party on Hilltop Drive.