His name has not been released because his next-of-kin has not been notified, officials said today.
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UPDATE @ 12:40 P.M. (Saturday, June 2)
Horace Printup said the sound of nine gunshots woke him up Saturday morning while he was sleeping in his apartment on Front Street in Hamilton.
Printup said after he woke up, he looked out his window and saw several people running out of the Elks Pure Gold No. 591 Lodge across the street and getting into their cars.
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Hamilton detectives are investigating the death of an unidentified male after a shooting took place on the corner of Front and Wilson street, police said. Hamilton Fire Department personnel responded, but they were unable to revive the victim, police said.
Police have not released the suspect’s name. No arrests have been made, police said.
Printup said he believes the victim was in the lodge, then was shot outside.
“A lot of trouble over there,” Printup said while sitting outside his Neilan Park apartment. “Alcohol, guns don’t mix. You can get a gun anywhere.”
There were two pieces of police tape in the street and sidewalk and several beer bottles and cans were lying in the grass on Saturday morning.
The neighborhood seemed quiet Saturday morning.
Across the street from the shooting, Alfred Hall, 67, of Hamilton, was tending to his plants in the Riverview Community Garden. Hall said he doesn’t see any violence in the area, but he’s never there at night. There is a fence around the garden, but Hall said that’s to keep animals out.
Some of the food grown in the garden is donated to the community, Hall said.
Hall believes some of the crime in the area is connected to the lack of resources in the neighborhood. He said there are no jobs or activities like playgrounds or swimming pools. A nearby apartment complex, he said, doesn’t have air conditioning, so on hot summer nights, the residents stand outside.
“It’s not a bad neighborhood, but it’s three-, four-generation poor people,” he said. “There are drugs, but there are drugs everywhere.”
Hall, born and raised in Hamilton, said in the 1960s there wasn’t the access to firearms there is today.
“We used to fight,” the 1969 Hamilton graduate said. “I got in a fight every day coming home from school. But it was a fist fight. One guy got knocked down, he called it quits and he went home. That’s not the way it is anymore. Now you get knocked down, beat up, you go home, get a gun and come back and shoot somebody.”
INITIAL REPORT: 5:30 A.M. (Saturday, June 2)
Hamilton police detectives are investigating the death of an unidentified male after a shooting took place on the corner of Front and Wilson Street early Saturday morning.
At 1:13 a.m., police were dispatched to the area on a report of shots fired and located the victim with gunshot wounds.
Hamilton Fire Department personnel also responded but they were unable to revive the victim.
It is unknown at this time if police have any suspects or persons of interest.
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