TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - There have been three shootings in three months in what used to be a prized South Toledo neighborhood.
People living on the 600 block of Nicholas Street say a gang moved in, and they fear things will only get worse. They spoke exclusively to WTOL about the problem.
During the day, the area looks like a nice neighborhood, but one resident said it's what happens after dark that he's concerned about.
Mark Napolski has lived on the block for 33 years. He's filed police reports, but so far, nothing has been done. Now, he's monitoring their activity and taking notes.
"It's my house. It's my neighborhood," said Napolski. "I've lived here longer than they have."
Napolski's neighbor, Rod Snowberger has lived on the street for 17 years.
"The day we moved in we actually won the best block for Christmas light," said Snowberger. "It was a great neighborhood; we had street parties. And now it's all rental properties."
One particular property has many people concerned for the safety of the young children who play on the sidewalks. It's the place of many late night parties and countless cars show up at all hours of the day.
The home has been the scene of three shootings.
"I'm afraid what's going to happen is they will get into a shootout or something instead of a drive-by," said Snowberger. "Once the shootout starts, you know, as well as I do, there will be a lot of people that could get hit or whatever. There's a lot of kids running around."
Napolski says he's concerned about his daughters and granddaughters safety.
"All it's going to take is one missed shot; someone will get killed," he said.
WTOL saw first-hand what the residents are talking about Wednesday.
With cameras rolling, at least four men came out of the problem houses on the block and started taunting the WTOL crew.
One man had a gun on his hip.
As the crew was finishing up filming, this conversation occurred:
- “You wanna talk to us? You wanna talk to us? What you wanna ask?”
- WTOL: “The other night you had…”
- “What you worried about the other night for?”
- WTOL: “Well, because…”
- “Then go ask that guy over there. You don’t have to come talk to us.”
- WTOL: “But it happened here...”
- “It don’t matter where it happened. It can happen anywhere. It’s Toledo.”
After that, the men started recording the crew with a cell phone. They even made threatening remarks about the police and the neighbors.
Out of concern for the safety of the neighbors, WTOL contacted Toledo police.
Officers went to the neighborhood and arrested 21-year-old Damien Hubble and 21-year-old Markos Reyes after finding drugs and guns in their car. Police say both men are known gang members.
