HOLYOKE — Less than 24 hours after the city’s fifth murder of 2022, local leaders gathered Thursday to let the public know that they are working on multiple fronts to curb gun violence, prosecute those responsible and keep the general public safe.
At a press conference outside City Hall in the afternoon, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni confirmed that a person was shot and killed in the downtown area on Wednesday night. Police, he said, have surveillance video of the shooting.
“The victim’s identity has not been released yet by my office, and I need to be vague at this delicate stage as the investigation develops,” Gulluni said. “But I can tell the public that we’ve made significant progress. … At this point, there should not be any ongoing concern for anybody.”
Two people have been shot to death this month in Holyoke and police made three gun homicide arrests in July. Gulluni said the city’s first four murders of 2022 have led to arrests and that the number of homicides is “on the high side of average” for the year.
Mayor Joshua Garcia and Police Chief David Pratt spoke, as well, promoting the city’s plan to install the ShotSpotter gunshot recognition technology downtown to aid police in responding to and investigating shootings.
“Our city has always been a place of hope. It’s always been a place of opportunity,” Garcia said, pledging that it would stay that way through creative hard work. “We take care of people who are down and out on their luck here in the city. My family, growing up, benefited from Holyoke’s compassion. … I understand that this level of compassion does indeed come with certain quality of life challenges that we have to face and that we’re dealing with every day.”
On Sept. 3, Alex Larkin, 25, of Chicopee, died of a gunshot wound after police were called to the 100-200 block of Nonotuck Street, according to Gulluni’s office.
In July, Alex Marrero, 32, was charged in the murder of 33-year-old Richard Roman-Santiago, and Elijah Melendez, 21, was charged with the murder of Elis Vizzcarrondo, 18, whose body was found in the Connecticut River. Pablo Rivera-Ortiz, 37, allegedly shot and killed 36-year-old Desiree Rivera López during a domestic altercation on July 23.
“We do need justice. Justice isn’t dispensed only by courts and prosecutors,” Garcia said. “I’m talking about social justice, which is the business of the entire community.”
He said local nonprofits work alongside city officials and law enforcement to address factors that lead to violence and crime in general “in the interest of creating a safer and more humane Holyoke.”
Pratt said the police department responds to around 50,000 calls per year. Through July 21, Holyoke police had responded to 115 reports of “shots fired,” 61 “gun calls,” four incidents of people injured by gunfire and two gun homicides, according to data provided by the department.
He detailed the existing partnerships between law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels, as well as social programs.
“What we do down on Race Street with our intervention officers, with our mental health officers, is groundbreaking. We were ahead of the curve on that,” Pratt said of the department’s Community Service Center. “I hate to say that if we did ‘this,’ then ‘that’ wouldn’t have happened, but we can just keep doing everything we do.”
Pratt and Gulluni took time at the press conference to criticize recent comments by City Councilor Jose Maldonado Velez, who compared Holyoke police to a “gang” during a Sept. 1 special council meeting, without mentioning him by name.
Councilors were discussing whether to accept a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to defray the cost of using ShotSpotter in one square mile of the city. The order was tabled for later consideration. American Rescue Plan Act funds would cover a second square mile.
Maldonado Velez argued that ShotSpotter — which is designed to notify police of suspected gunshots in real-time and provide the location — is not going to solve the problems that cause people to become violent and will increase policing in minority communities. He said “we need a whole culture shift” toward community policing and public safety, and “this is not the answer to that.”
“The police is a gang. It literally is. They’re there to protect each other, to look out for each other, and to come out with force in our community,” Maldonado Velez said. “The police, for me, was used as a reminder to stay in my place. I’m a Latino. You’re supposed to act a certain way, talk a certain way. That’s what police was for. It was not there to help me.”
Garcia said on Thursday that the technology would cover the area of the city where 80% of gunshots occur and residents are primarily low income and Puerto Rican. In his remarks before the council, Maldonado Velez said it is in the ward he represents.
Gulluni referred to the statements as “irresponsible” and “inconsistent” with the reality of the department’s work. He said ShotSpotter is a well-liked and effective law enforcement tool in Springfield and disagreed that it increases police “targeting” of communities of color.
Pratt said that it was “disheartening that an elected official would say that” and he has made his displeasure known to the City Council president.
“We are very, very thankful to the mayor, who supports the ShotSpotter system coming here,” Pratt said. “That’s going to only increase our ability” to investigate shootings “because these crimes have no business here in the city of Holyoke, and we’re going to do everything we can to stop that.”
Maldonado Velez said Thursday evening he would not be silenced.
“I think what was shocking to those who took serious offense is that Holyoke has a councilor that finally feels empowered to share openly about his experience growing up as a Latino man in Holyoke, and has a platform to share that experience in a very public setting,” he said.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.