Shots fired reports follow one from day earlier

Two separate reports by Kingston police of shots being fired in Midtown Thursday night followed reports a day earlier of shots fired, a violent armed robbery and an assault in the city.

At about 5:30 p.m. Thursday police said a caller reported shots fired in front of 219 Downs St. That incident was followed six hours later, at about 11:30 p.m., by a report of shots fired in the area of Franklin and St. James streets, police said.

There were no injuries reported in either incident Thursday or in the Wednesday night incident. Police provided no additional details about the Thursday night incidents.

On Wednesday night, police said shots were fired at an unoccupied parked car on Hunter Street near Ravine Street in the Rondout section of the city at about 10:50 p.m.

Wednesday’s incident was the first in the city after a lull of nearly two months amid an increase in road patrols that included Kingston police, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and state police.

Reached by phone Friday, Police Chief Egidio Tinti said the frequency of and need for additional patrols and shared services with other agencies is “kind of a fluid operation” that is reevaluated frequently.

Tinti said there is no definite end-date for increased patrols, which were a response to numerous incidents of shots being fired over the summer, including one homicide and two teens being shot in their legs.

At a Sept. 23 meeting of the Kingston Common Council’s Public Safety committee, Tinti said the city’s law-enforcement partnerships and increased patrols had led to the near elimination of gunfire in Kingston and that he wanted to extend the ini

tiative beyond the initial 10week evaluation period that began Aug. 6.

But on Friday, the chief said joint patrols would continue.

By phone, Tinti said the additional police presence on both Wednesday and Thursday led to “some good

leads” and “a very fast response” to all of the incidents. Because there are “a number of patrols” on city streets, the chief said police were able to quickly recover evidence, have spoken to numerous neighbors and witnesses and are “following a bunch of leads.”

“In most cases there is double the amount of officers on the street,” he said.

Tinti declined to say whether any of the most recent

incidents of gunfire were related, but said police are investigating any possible connections. He said a number of residents have reached out to police with leads, including anonymous tips left on the department’s tip line, some of which have been helpful.

The chief said he has seen increased willingness among members of the community to offer evidence and information to police, from

tips to video footage from surveillance cameras. “If they want a safer community they have to be a part of a safer community. … People do recognize their role, although I would never advocate for people to go out in the neighborhood and do what police do,” he said.

At the Sept. 23 meeting, Tinti said there were three or four officers from his department working with four to five state troopers and up to

three deputies from the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.

“At this point we have to evaluate where the patrols are and what they’re doing. … Our efforts through this partnership have really focused on the entire city of Kingston,” he said Friday.

The increased patrols followed four fatal shootings in the city between October 2019 and July 2020, only one of which has resulted in an arrest; as well as numerous

incidents of shots being fired and no one being struck. In early July, though, two teens suffered leg wounds in a shooting at the Birchwood Village apartment complex.

Detectives are currently following up on leads from all three recent incidents and anyone with information about any of these incidents is asked to call the Kingston police at (845) 3311671, or the detective division at (845) 331-8404.