KINGSTON – Police Chief Egidio Tinti said his entire Kingston City Police Department is working on the three recent shootings, one of which was fatal.
He said on Monday that he has enlisted the aid of the State Police, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, town departments in the area as well as the Mid-Hudson crime intelligence center in Goshen.
While he wouldn’t say if the shootings over the last seven days were related, he did say drugs were involved and they were targeted crimes. “These (shootings) have been identified targets. It doesn’t make it right. There is no reason for these things to happen; it’s unfortunate that they happen,” he said. “As far as the general public is concerned, certainly the events that have occurred; there’s drug involvement. There are issues within those components that make it targeted.”
Kingston Mayor Steven Noble said gun violence, in general, must be quelled. “We have to do it together. We have to do it from the ground up, and that includes working with our communities, making sure that we have everything from after-school for our youth all the way up to making sure that when gun violence does occur that our police department does have the tools necessary,” he said.
With assistance from the sheriff’s office and State Police, Tinti said they have stepped up visibility throughout the city to put criminals on notice and that put residents’ minds at ease about police protection.
