WILLIAMSBURG — An early morning murder has stoked mounting frustrations from waterfront residents, who say they've watched the pier and park turn from a tranquil public space into an increasingly rowdy and lawless zone once the sun goes down.
Those fears came to a head last week when 22-year-old Jesus Pimentel, a Bronx resident was shot and killed on North 6th Street near Kent Avenue at 1:30 a.m, the first murder in Williamsburg and Greenpoint's 94th Precinct this year.
"I've had a front-row seat to the changes in the area, we can hear and see everything," said Marisa Yeres, who's lived in the luxury doorman condo building 1 Northside Piers for the past five years and said she used to walk at night but no longer feels safe. "People defecated on our front steps, my home has been vandalized twice."
"I've never seen a patrol person of any sort," she said. "It's an open invitation to come out and party."
The fatal shooting followed an argument, though police said Pimentel was leaving a residential building at 34 N. 6th St. just before he was gunned down, not hanging out on the pier.
And Pimentel knew his killer, according to Captain Peter Rose, head of the 94th Precinct, who hoped the information would bring some solace to worried residents at a Community Council meeting last Wednesday night.
"It actually doesn't alleviate my fears at all," said Keith Berger, another resident at 1 Northside Piers. "There are broken bottles, people drinking all night."
"It's gotta stop. It's been horrible out there."
An anonymous tipster shared a video with DNAinfo that showed a group of motorcyclists revving their engines and riding their bikes on the pier on Aug. 11. He said he called the police but no one showed up.
Erica Porter, who lives in a subsided development at 27 N. 6th St. said she steers clear of the waterfront area at night and cautions her 19-year-old daughter to do the same.
"They smoke, they play music," Porter said. "After 8 or 9 o'clock it turns into Crazy Town."
"Everyone knows there is no police presence," she said, and thus, "anything goes."
Captain Rose told the worried residents they would do their best to commit more regular patrols to the area, though he admitted the precinct is already stretched thin as the neighborhood's population continues to swell.
"You will see a better presence down there," Rose said. "You'll see more of a direct patrol coming from our end."
Jeffrey Levine's Douglaston Development, which owns waterfront buildings along North 6th Street including The Edge, and more than 300 subsided apartments, deferred comment to the management company Clinton Management.
“The security and safety of our residents in the buildings under our management and within the greater North Williamsburg waterfront community are our top priority," said company president Anne Cooleen.
No one had been arrested in connection with Pimentel's death as of Monday afternoon, police confirmed.
