News

March 5, 2013
Elmira (WENY) - Dozens of police, fire and emergency response crews from NYSEG were on scene all afternoon after two people were shot. Officers to evacuate the area within a two block radius of the home, due to the gas leak. Police detectives cleared the scene just after 6:30 Tuesday evening. Neighbors I spoke to earlier today say it was chaotic.
      Tuesday's events hit a little too close for home for some neighbors on Elmira's west side, who were evacuated today after police say the suspect who shot two people at the home of 467 west second street, and may have caused a gas leak. SWAT teams shielded NYSEG workers as they vented and repaired the leak. Neighbors like Toshia Teeter and Jon Hanratty were shaken up, many have children.
      “Well pretty much everyone in my neighborhood we all have small children so we all feel the same way as far as myself and my family we're just gonna go and move,” says Teeter.
      “It's not that I feel unsafe it;a just an inconvenience to wake up and be told to go back in my house and not be able to get a straight answer I understand that this is a situation that mandates an evacuation and being partially from the area I don't,” says Hanratty.
      Sometimes its all about perspective. For Kareem Whitaker, living in Elmira is safer, compared to his old home in Newark New Jersey.
     “So to come from that environment and come to Elmira. The fact that Shootings happen every so often and not all the time, to me this is a perfect place to live,” says Whitaker.
      Police say the suspected shooter is not in custody, and have not released the names or conditions of the victims who were taken to the hospital. We will bring you the latest as soon as it becomes available.