A back-to-school event with over 300 attendees at Lewiston’s McGraw Park on Friday was interrupted by a teen male firing a gun into the air and ground, according to the Lewiston Police Department.
[RELATED: 17-year-old Dead at Public Housing Complex in One of Three Weekend Shootings in Lewiston…]
Lewiston Police say that they responded to a shots fired incident at McGraw Park shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday.
Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS), a Lewiston-based migrant advocacy nonprofit, was holding their third annual “Family Fun Day” back-to-school event in the park at the time.
Police said that when they arrived at the park it was filled with hundreds of people, mostly children, who were being given school supplies for the upcoming school year.
Witnesses told police that a teen male had “emerged and began to fire in the air and into the ground,” police said.
A vehicle was struck by the gunfire, but no one was injured in the shooting.
Police said that one female was treated at the scene for an asthma attack.
In a statement to social media on Saturday, MEIRS Executive Director Rilwan Osman said the Family Fun Day event was “aimed at bringing diverse parents and children together,” and prior to the shooting was “going wonderfully with over 300 attendees enjoying food, games, and activities.”
While the Lewiston Police Department’s statement indicates that the shooting occurred at the park, Osman claimed that the gunshots were heard “far from McGraw Park” where the event was being held, and that “no one who was attending our event was involved.”
“We’re disappointed that this joyful evening was disrupted, especially with so many families present,” Osman wrote.
“Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services is actively working with other organizations to provide awareness, education, and support to our youth and their parents in an effort to reduce gun violence in our community,” he wrote, thanking Lewiston Police for their “swift and professional response.”
About 15 minutes after responding to McGraw Park, Lewiston Police responded to another reported shots fired in the area of Pine and Horton Street.
Witnesses in the area told police that the shots “may have come from a vehicle or juveniles that were in the area.”
No injuries or damage were reported from the second shots fired incident, and investigations into both incidents remain active, police said.
This weekend’s shootings come as the latest in a string of shots fired incidents that have occurred in Lewiston this summer.
Just last week a juvenile male was injured in a drive-by shooting that occurred near the intersection of Pine and Jefferson Street in Lewiston, and a 17-year-old male who worked with MEIRS as a youth intern was killed in a shooting last month at a Lewiston public housing complex.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="30284 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=30284">13 Comments
Doesn’t matter the affiliation, this is where Mills has led the state. She should be proud.
How’s the Left’s mantra of “All cultures are morally equivalent” working out for Maine?
Diversity is our…..duckkkkk!!!!!!!
Who knew that importing sub-Saharans would be disastrous for White communities? Not caring about race hasn’t worked out for White people.
If these criminal aliens were prevented from coming into this country in the first place, and not rewarded by being given all kinds of “freebies” according to the plans of our communist governor this would not be a problem.
These criminals get more attention from our state government that people who have spent their whole lives as taxpayers in Maine. This is beyond wrong, miles beyond wrong.
The democrat party voting bloc is eventually going to be made up of nothing but criminals, and ladies with cats, eventually.
Welcome to The New Maine ….
Lots of Mohammeds
Lots of Omars
Lots of Crime .
The non profit virtue centers “ resettlement “ groups are mostly to blame
THEY brought them here
Maine let them stay and rewards the non profits with more money .
These Feral Sub-Saharans are incapable of living in Western Civilization ….75,000 more is REALLY going to spice things up . They will never assimilate nor be independent . Name one just one -Town , City , County , State or Country that Blacks are in Charge of and that is Flourishing ? Ok everyone clutch your Pearls and let the name calling begin …. The facts do not lie .
These JD Vance style incels are nurtured by the lonely angry alternative facts from right wing news sources.
The gotcha journalism on this website playing fast and loose with facts trying to emulate fox news is the exact kind of atmosphere that breeds these shootings.
The inflexible nature of the writers of right wing information sites like this are exactly why boys feel trapped and angry and ready to use their guns.
If you want to see the genesis of a shooter start with the attitude Maine Wire brings to “reporting”… Maine Wire certainly has that why can’t -I-get-laid?, incel-type feeling…
I’m looking at you Steve Robinson… you seem angry and lonely and way too in to the internet.
This Isaac guy sounds like some Islamic AI bot.
He’s paid to write DIS information .
Go back to wherever T F you came from .
You are not from Maine .
Go home
We don’t need or want your kind here.
Need a bus ticket ?
Yes
I agree
He sounds like a Muslim malcontent .
Get lost Isaac
Who is this Isaac Dye joker ?
Is he really the Ayatollah of Islamistsn disguised as a Maine American ?
Another Ilhan Omar boy friend wanna be ?
HE is calling out the editor of this news site ? You kidding me ?
THE ONLY REAL NEWS SITE IN MAINE ?
Go away Isaac Dye ……tell your lies about JD Vance somewhere else !
Go play with your own friends .
He’s also Easu on other posts.
Many comments here blame these incidents are recent immigrants, but fail to mention that 18 people were killed in Lewiston last year by a white male born in Maine.