Gunplay

In the latest disturbance, the shots were aimed toward several apartments, not away from them, as was the case in previous incidents. Three bullets pierced three separate windows in three apartments in the complex. Two bullets lodged inside apartments A and C in Building 22. In apartment A, a bullet was dug out of the wall over the living room couch by Nassau County police detectives. No injuries were reported.
"It seemed close by - I thought it was in the back," said Barbara Davis, who lives on the ground floor, in apartment A and uses a wheelchair. "I went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, in the light, I looked through the living room and saw the hole. I could have cried. ... You hear a shot, and you think it's on the outside. I had no idea it came inside. When I go to bed tonight, I don't know if I'll sleep."
Rockville Centre police said they received a call reporting gunshots at about 1:50 that morning. A detective, a sergeant and three patrolmen responded. They used a sophisticated thermal imaging device to show the heat signature of humans, hot shell casings, anything that might be connected to the incident. Describing the search as "comprehensive," police found nothing. They explained that not one of the three people who called police later in the morning, when they awoke to see evidence of bullets, were on hand when police first arrived.
John Duenges, executive director of the RVC Housing Authority, said that five to seven .38 or .45-caliber bullets were fired. Duenges said there had been four or five incidents in which weapons were discharged in the complex over the past six months, but no shots had ever been fired toward the apartments. "To me, it's at a point where we have to do something - we have to heighten awareness of what's happening before someone gets hurt," he said. "It's only a matter of time."
Duenges said he didn't know if people coming in from outside were causing the problems. He said he would be requesting more police patrols on weekends and evenings. "We are going to do what we have to to make this place safe," he said, adding that he would hold a meeting for tenants, and that he was trying to organize a meeting with village police and officials.
Duenges also said that apartments in the complex were set to undergo major renovations, starting in July, funded by state grants and investment tax credits. The nine buildings, which contain 164 apartments, are scheduled for interior and exterior work that will include gutting the units, re-plumbing and rewiring them. Over a period of 24 months, they will also receive new appliances, windows, roofs, siding, landscaping and sidewalks. During the renovations, tenants in affected apartments will move into 39 units on the premises that are now vacant and where some repairs have already been completed.
When the renovations are completed, Duenges said, there might be funds left over that could be used for new security cameras and even supplemental patrols by a private security company. "I think a combination of cameras, a security firm and extra police rounds should work," he said.
But a neighbor of Davis's, Alfreda Brewster, who heard the shots fired and called police that night, said she wondered about the wisdom of pouring $26 million into the complex, with security apparently so tenuous state. "It's a sad situation here, it's bad," Brewster said. "The drugs is running rampant. Guns follow. It's not the tenants. We're not used to this. There are no police here unless we call them. We used to get great service from the Rockville Centre police and fire departments. It has changed within the last year. Something must be done. It is absolutely frightening."
In a written statement, Rockville Centre Police Commissioner Jack McKeon said, "The Rockville Centre Police Department is vigorously pursuing the investigation of the shots fired at Old Mill Court, in close cooperation with the Nassau County Police Department."
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