Pocono News Section

5th shooting in 3 years on Wilkes-Barre street

5th shooting in 3 years on Wilkes-Barre street - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 3:44PM EST

Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008 @03:44pm EST

Wilkes-Barre police are still searching for a gunman who shot a man in the neck.

It happened at about 9:30 Monday night, outside the old White House Cafe on Hazle Street.

It's the fifth shooting in the last three years outside that building, but this one comes after the bar shut down.

It's a scene all too familiar to neighbors around the old white house cafe in Wilkes-Barre.

Police cars lining Hazle Street, after a shooting.

Raquel Arnold of Wilkes-Barre says, "It's ridiculous. It's like the bar's closed and there is still violence out here. When will it ever stop? I don't think it will though."

Arnold, like many others here, are coming to grips with the fifth shooting in the last three years here, all outside the former White House Cafe building.

Neighbor James Reese puts it simply.

"Well we're sick of it. We're sick of this," says Reese.

The white house cafe owners voluntarily closed last October, because their liquor license was revoked, mainly because of violence just like Monday night's.

Last June, a man was shot and killed outside the bar.

In 2006, another man was also gunned down.

But the new round of violence brings new worries.

Frank McRae has worked in the area for 25 years, and says he'd like to see the violence put to rest.

McRae says, “I don't know, I seen it on the news this morning. I don't believe it. And I was just here yesterday."

Ruth Andes says it's so bad, she's thinking about moving.

Andes says, "It's terrible, it's terrible. I wouldn't even sit out here at night. It's terrible"

Now Andes and her neighbors wonder if the shootings have come to an end.

White House Cafe owners say they repeatedly asked for stepped up police presence outside the bar, but never got it.

The owners are appealing the loss of their liquor license.