Pocono News Section

Fight, Gunfire Cause Big Scare in Apartment Complex

Fight, Gunfire Cause Big Scare in Apartment Complex - Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 04:09AM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Wednesday May 26 2010

MILTON, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY - It was all out bedlam Tuesday night at a housing complex in Milton. Police are still investigating but say a fight may have triggered the violence.

It appears no one was hit by the gunfire and nothing was damaged -- but a witness to it all feared for the worst. "Just crazy, it was all out crazy mayhem, kind of scary to think it could happen around here," said Neil Digan of Milton.

He looked out his door Tuesday night around 8:30 and saw all the commotion just outside his Hepburn Street Complex Apartment. He witnessed initially about 15 to 20 people involved in some sort of altercation. "I had stepped out to tell them to break it up and about that time it all broke loose," he said.

A neighborhood that's normally quiet erupted in gunfire. "It happened pretty much when I was dialing 9-1-1 and then I had seen a guy running up the street with a gun and... it wasn't pretty," said Mr. Digan.

Orange markings on the road show the bullet casings that police recovered. An officer who remained on scene Wednesday morning says 7-men were questioned about what happened. Police also impounded a car from which the shots were fired. They even found a casing inside it.

People living in the Hepburn Street Complex say there've been problems here before but never involving gunfire. And now with at least 6 gunshots fired Tuesday night, they're concerned for their safety. "I don't like it. I definitely don't like it," said a neighbor who only wanted to be identified as Sandy.

She's concerned for more than herself. "I know there's a lot of people around here who do have children and I worry a lot about them," she said.

It's a shared and growing concern among neighbors and police. Milton police say most of the suspects behind Tuesday night's fight are young men but some young women were also involved.