Huntington Station residents' vigil targets violence

Hundreds of Huntington Station residents held a candlelight vigil Sunday night to urge an end to the street violence that led to the controversial closure of the Jack Abrams School.

Singing "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine," community members called for solidarity in confronting crime and negative stereotypes about Huntington Station, a working-class section of town.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing that it's too dangerous to raise a family here. . . . Our community has gotten a bad rap," said Rebecca Sanin, who helped organize the event as a collective mourning of victims of violence and less tangible forms of loss. "We've lost a lot of people. We've lost our sense of security, we've lost our school and we've lost trust in our elected officials."

Around 8 p.m., some 250 residents marched from the Long Island Rail Road commuter lot at Church Street and New York Avenue to the Abrams School on Lowndes Avenue.

For Lubreth Elmore, 78, whose granddaughter attended the school last year, the solution to the community's public safety problem lies not in closing the school, but rather in stepping up policing efforts. "Closing the school won't stop the crime," she said.

Suffolk Police Officer John Chiquitucto, community liaison officer for the Town of Huntington, said the community's strength "is why they're going to get past the violence."

"That this community can come together despite all the trouble is just great," he said.

The Rev. Dr. Lionel Smith, leading the crowd in prayer, said for too long Huntington Station has been an afterthought.

"We're here tonight to tell the town and the county that we are not going away," said Smith, of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Huntington Station. With Laura Rivera