By Marley Seaman
According to police, Elton Smith, 28, of 2419 Gale Ave., got into an argument with a contractor who was working on Smith¹s home on the morning of Feb. 1.
At 9:50 a.m., as the dispute, which began inside the home, spilled out onto Gale Avenue, police said that Smith took out a 9 mm handgun and fired five times at the contractor. Four of the shots struck the victim's Lincoln Navigator as he sped away. Smith also fled the scene. Police later recovered the victim¹s car in Roosevelt.
Officials would not comment on the nature of the argument or what compelled Smith to use a gun.
Along with St. Christopher's School near the shooting, Baldwin schools went into lockdown at 10:10 a.m., followed by schools in Oceanside and Rockville Centre.
Oceanside Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown said he was at Oceanside High School between 10:30 and 10:45, when a secretary there received a call from the Baldwin district indicating that its schools were on lockdown because of a shooting. At about the same time, Brown received a call from Superintendent Dr. William Johnson of Rockville Centre schools.
"Police advised Baldwin schools to go into lockdown, and the superintendent from Rockville Centre and I decided we would go along with that lockdown because we're so close to Baldwin," Brown said. "So we called all of our schools around 10:45, I guess, and told them we were going to be on lockdown."
In Baldwin, the shots came as students at St. Christopher¹s School were between second- and third-period classes, and the school was quickly locked down.
"We thought it was firecrackers," said a parent who was at the school at the time. School officials at St. Christopher's would not comment.
The lockdowns in Oceanside and Baldwin ended at about 11:20 a.m
Police closed off Gale Avenue for several hours as they tried to determine Smith's whereabouts and spoke with his girlfriend, who was at the home during the dispute. Smith negotiated a surrender to police later that day, eventually turning himself in at the 1st Precinct station house at 9:30 p.m. He was charged with first-degree attempted assault, second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree criminal mischief, and two counts of second-degree criminal use of a firearm.
Later, at approximately 12:45 p.m., Smith's girlfriend, Melody Clemens, left the house and attempted to get into a green Pontiac Grand Am sitting in the driveway. Police quickly surrounded her, and she was taken away in handcuffs.
She was charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction of government administration, said a spokesperson for District Attorney Kathleen Rice.
The latest shooting comes just over two months after the school districts last used a lockdown procedure, on Nov. 24, when an attempted bank robbery in Baldwin resulted in a manhunt for a suspect in the vicinity of Baldwin High School.
