News

Stray bullets alarm residents and riddle homes with bullet holes

BROCKTON, Mass. — Brockton residents duck for cover as stray bullets flew through the neighborhood, hitting at least two houses and leaving several bullet holes on the walls.

Police say no one was hurt but they are still searching for the person who fired the shots.

The first round of shots were aimed at a home on Wallace Street.

An officer who's been with the Brockton Police Department for 23 years was among one of the local residents whose home was hit by stray bullets.

Longtime neighbors say they will not let the gun violence push them out of the community they've called home for so many years.

“I’m not used to guns and I got scared," said Averil Florio, a resident who heard gunshots fired on her home. "It was an unfamiliar sound, coming from just feet away. I thought somebody was trying to bang into my cellar door."

At first, Florio didn't know what was happening, but she knew that whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

When the gunshots finally ceased, she ventured outside her home to investigate, and saw flashing lights.

Florio has lived in this home for about 50 years. The sliding glass door of the house behind hers was completely shattered. The Wallace Street home was riddled with bullets.

18 year old Leandro Barros tells us he saw the gunman dash through Florio’s yard as he made a getaway.

"Then I saw the man with a gun he run back to the car and to the other side, but I couldn’t see the face," Barros said.

Daylight revealed just how close the neighbors came to danger, where several homes were apparently hit by stray bullets, including the home of a Brockton Police officer.

What he believes to be a bullet hole is now visible on the second floor of his home, just outside his daughter's bedroom. Luckily, nothing went through the wall.

Several residents tell Boston 25 News reporter Drew Karedes they’ve complained about a stream of suspicious activity at the house that was shot up.

Neighbors tell us they’ve recently noticed squatters in and out of the vacant home that apparently has no electricity or water. Property records show it is owned by a bank.

“Sadly, the only time real action will take place is when someone gets a bullet in the head that’s innocent.. then say we got to do something then it’s too late," said Gregory Manoogian, a neighbor. "I've been calling police about the traffic out here has been tremendous cars in and out in and out."

He says he can’t even count how many times he’s complained about the now vacant home targeted in the gunfire.

Brockton Police haven’t said what have prompted the shooting on Wallace Street.

They also haven’t told us if a second shooting about two miles away on Glenwood Street early Saturday morning could be conncted.