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MA: Officials step-up turn-in-your-gun-owning-neighbor program (10/4/2001)
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Officials step up gun removal efforts after fatal shooting By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press, 10/2/2001 13:32 SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) Local, state and federal law enforcers said Tuesday they're stepping up a campaign started last year to get illegal guns off the streets of Hampden County. District Attorney William Bennett called the timing of the announcement to expand Project Remove ''ironic,'' considering Monday's arraignment of a 17-year-old charged with murdering a Springfield girl with a stolen gun. The Tuesday news conference was planned before the fatal shooting, he said. Joseph Oquendo of Springfield pleaded innocent to murdering 16-year-old Zinaida Cruz. Cruz was shot in the head Friday and died Saturday. Prosecutors say Oquendo and a 15-year-old companion stole the .22-caliber handgun from a home they broke into. Bennett said the boys tried to the sell the gun, fired it at two separate locations and bragged about having it. Project Remove encourages people to tell police if they know of someone who has an illegal gun. ''If someone had called police and told them that this guy had a stolen gun, the gun would have been taken away and this tragedy would have been prevented,'' Bennett said. Project Remove began in April 2000, two months after Holyoke police officer John DiNapoli was fatally shot. Eddie Morales was convicted in March of murdering DiNapoli with a stolen handgun. Bennett said about 100 people in Hampden County have been indicted for gun crimes as a result of Project Remove. ''This has been working, and it's been working well,'' said Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott. ''When you have local, state and federal officials working together, you get results.'' As part of the campaign, county and federal authorities have been specially designated to handle gun cases and trace the source of all illegal guns. Bennett said the program may offer rewards for people who report those with stolen guns. There is no money for rewards now, he said. With about $40,000 from area businesses and thousands more in donations and in-kind services, authorities are now pushing Project Remove before the public eye. Six billboard messages that will rotate in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee went up last month. Both sides of one public bus that runs through the Pioneer Valley have been outfitted with an advertisement for the program featuring a man standing behind bars and the slogan: ''We'll keep the piece.'' Thousands of posters and stickers will be displayed and handed out at police stations, schools and youth centers, Bennett said. ''This is a community problem and a community issue,'' said Springfield Mayor Michael Albano. ''We need help from people in the communities to make this work.'' http://www.boston.com/dailynews/275/region/Officials_step_up_gun_removal_:.shtml