Hempstead community calls for outside police help after deadly shooting at McDonald's near school
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Members of a Long Island community are asking for police help from Nassau County and the state after a deadly shooting at a McDonald's.
It happened just after school let out Wednesday afternoon in Hempstead Village, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.
On Thursday, the Hempstead School District offered a 19-second moment of silence for the unidentified 19-year-old former student who was killed less than a mile away from the high school and middle school.
"We have students that have to walk down Peninsula Boulevard during dismissal and duck for cover because people are shooting," said Hempstead School Board President Randy Stith.
"It could be walking home, it could be anywhere. It's really sad," a student told CBS2.
There is no bussing in Hempstead Village despite requests for funding. Students walk to and from school.
"For a neighborhood to be so small and have so many shootings, it's a tragedy," a resident said.
Some point to random shootings near schools in August outside a charter school and overnight shattering a window in an elementary school.
"They have nothing to do now, so their time is home with mom and dad or in the streets," a parent said.
"We need more police presence because it's a wild, wild west," a mother said in a video on Facebook.
Some in the community want the county and the state to step in.
Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said gun seizures are up and shootings are down 56 percent this year.
"We have license plate readers, we have cameras throughout the village of Hempstead, and it appears this was targeted," Hobbs said.
The McDonald's shooting is pointing toward gang retaliation.
"If I'm not getting enough support at home, or nothing like that, I'd probably be in the streets too," another student said.
Police said they have a Juvenile Aid Bureau working within the district and are training two school resource officers to be stationed inside the high school.
"There are a lot of good programs, a lot of people trying to do better, help to do better," another resident said.
Raymond Hernandez, a student, will graduate early and begin at Nassau Community College.
"I'm majoring in biology and minoring in computer science, and then after those two years I'm going to transfer to SUNY at Old Westbury," said Hernandez
It's a proud plan from a student to return and support the community he loves.