UPPER WEST SIDE — Police are on high alert at the Frederick Douglass Houses after being called there to investigate gunshots fired six times in the past two months, they said at a meeting Wednesday.
Lt. Matthew Bases of the 24th Precinct said the precinct has stepped up patrols in the area and are urging those who live nearby to report all gunshots.
"We're concentrating on that area, the Douglass Houses," Bases told those assembled at the precinct meeting, adding that he was sending plainclothes officers there on patrol.
The gang associated with Douglass Houses, the Columbus Avenue Gunners, seems to be more active this spring, he added, without going into more detail.
On April 12, a man fired a 9mm pistol into the air three times between 5 and 6 p.m. at West 106th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, close to the housing project, police said.
The man fled the scene, police said. No one was injured and no arrests were made. One resident reported hearing the shots around 5:20 p.m.
That incident particularly alarmed police because it happened in the early evening and because of the presence of bystanders who could have been hit by a stray bullet, they said at a precinct meeting Wednesday.
The other incidents happened between West 100th Street and West 106th Street from Amsterdam to Central Park West, said Lt. Matthew Bases at the meeting.
In one of the incidents, shell casings were found on the roof of 875 Columbus Ave., a Douglass Houses building, but there were no witnesses and no one was arrested, he said.
Specific details about the other incidents were not available.
The precinct is using the ShotSpotter program — a system that uses audio to pinpoint the location of gunshots — to try to get to locations faster, he said.
The program was first rolled out in high crime precincts in Brooklyn and the Bronx in March 2015.
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