Lewiston Police are investigating a pair of shooting incidents that occurred on the same street over two separate days this week.
Police say that shortly after 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, officers responded to the area of 79 Birch St. in Lewiston to a report of gunshots.
While they located no suspects or evidence of a shooting in the area, officers later received a call from 184 Bartlett St. for a reported broken window.
There officers discovered that the damage to the home was the result of a bullet and recovered evidence to support this, police said.
Two days later, at 11:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, police responded to 188 Bartlett St. to a report of several several gunshots.
Officers who responded to the scene found that an apartment at 176 Bartlett St. had been struck by a bullet.
Police say there were no injuries reported in either incident.
The Lewiston Police Department recently held two informational sessions for parents regarding the city’s youth, gun safety, and “substance use challenges” as part of the department’s plan to address a surge of gun violence incidents over the past year.
The informational sessions between police and Lewiston parents were part of a strategy of community engagement announced by Police Chief David St. Pierre at a press conference addressing the city’s uptick in shootings from August of last year.
Chief St. Pierre said at the press conference that the city had seen nearly 30 shots fired incidents since the start of 2023.
Those shootings included gunshots interrupting a refugee nonprofit group’s ‘family fun day’ event at a public park in Lewiston that had over 300 attendees and many children in attendance, as well as a shooting at a Lewiston public housing complex that left a 17-year-old dead.
St. Pierre also said in August that the city would hold monthly informal meetings with immigrant and refugee groups based in the area, in order to “build trust” between police and the local youth.
