DRUG WAR TIED TO CITY SHOOTINGS

Police Chief Says Elmira Faces Crack, Marijuana Problems.

Elmira police say the recent shootings in the city is the result of a
small-scale drug war and they know who the key players are.

"We think (the shootings) are all related and all based on drugs
somehow," said Elmira Police Chief W. Scott Drake III.

The latest shooting occurred Oct. 8, when police say Johnnie M.
Garcia III shot at a Jeep at East Church and William streets.

Police also say this isn't the first encounter they had with Garcia,
nor the first time they believe he has fired into a vehicle in hopes
of injuring its occupants.

Garcia spent four years in jail after firing six shots into a car
carrying three people on Railroad Avenue in 1999. One person in the
car was struck in the back and treated at an Elmira hospital.

The incident occurred after Garcia and others were kicked out of
Sportsman's Inn on Railroad Avenue for fighting.

"He shot right into a car," Drake said. "His attorney is going to
have a hard time arguing that that isn't his M.O."

But that shooting is part of a pattern of gun violence the city has
recently witnessed.

Shootings have happened on the Northside on West Third Street,
College Avenue and Clinton Street, and on the Southside on Spaulding
Street. Police have not announced any arrests in those crimes, but
they say they know who's behind the shootings.

"We know all the players. We have all their pictures," Drake said of
suspects in the Spaulding Street shooting on Sept. 20 that sent one
man to the hospital after he was shot in his arm as he drove his
black sport utility vehicle on the Southside.

"It's not that we don't know who is involved," Drake said. "We just
have to wait until they do something to violate the law or (we)
gather enough evidence to arrest them."

Drake said witnesses may be reluctant to come forward.

"These aren't upstanding citizens involved in these things," he said.

Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss said he agrees with Drake's
assessment that the shootings are drug-related.

"A high volume of the crime we deal with today is drug-related,
whether it be larceny or burglaries," Moss said. "When you have two
different factions shooting at each other like that, it is usually a
battle over turf."

The danger to innocent citizens is very real, Moss warned.

"The last thing we want to have happen is for someone to be caught in
the crossfire between two drug factions," he said.

Working with the New York State Police and creating a comprehensive
patrol system in and around the city may help the situation, Moss said.

The region is seeing a lot of crack cocaine, marijuana and
methamphetamine sales and use right now, Moss said. Drake said the
city is struggling with marijuana and crack.

Drake said violence between groups of drug pushers is not unusual.

"A year ago, we went through something similar," he said.
"Unfortunately, we have no control when drug wars start, and we do
our best to get (the dealers) incarcerated and off the streets."

In last week's shooting, Garcia was charged with second-degree
criminal use of a firearm, second-degree criminal possession of a
weapon and first-degree reckless endangerment.

Garcia was among the suspects involved in the recent shootings that
police were watching, Drake said.

"With this group of people, when they shoot at each other, most of
the time they miss, but if they are successful and someone gets
killed, they'll snitch on each other. There is no honor code.

"I just don't think they are mature enough to realize that life is a
one-time thing and once it's gone, it's gone."