Gunshots, Violence Scare Neighbours

FAILED RAID AT SUSPECTED CRACK HOUSE

Barbara Little has the kindly face of everybody's favourite
grandmother. But her features tighten with fear and anger and she
talks about arming herself with a baseball bat when she's asked about
the suspected crack house at 4 Grant Ave.

The Hamilton drug squad and a heavily armed tactical team raided the
two-and-a-half-storey Georgian home in the east end Wednesday night.

Sergeant Maggie McKittrick said drug officers found drug paraphernalia
when they raided one of the apartments in the house. But by the time
they got inside, police suspect the occupants had flushed the drugs
down the toilet. Residents were questioned but nobody was charged.

She said the tenants had a lookout on the second floor and would have
had time to sanitize the apartment before police got inside. She said
the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) was brought in because of the
previous gun incidents at the house. As a matter of policy, the
tactical team always calls out to the occupants of a building before
going inside.

The operation followed a series of violent incidents and complaints
about noise, drugs and rowdy behaviour.

On Aug. 24, a 21-year-old man was assaulted and shot while he was
standing in front of the house and on Labour Day, residents heard a
series of gunshots coming from the house. Police found spots of blood
at the scene after the most recent shooting but there were no victims
or suspects around. Nobody has been charged in either shooting.

Little said she became aware of the Wednesday night raid when she
heard police calling out to the occupants of the house at about 10:45
p.m. But during the operation, she remained safely indoors, as she has
been doing most nights since the shootings. A crowd of onlookers could
be heard cheering on the street, however, when police stormed the
building with guns drawn.

After 15 years of relatively quiet domesticity with husband Donald,
Little said she no longer feels safe in her own home. She said an
elderly woman, who had lived on the street for 35 years, recently
moved out because of the criminal activities.

"We may have to move, too," Little said, "we'll be forced
out."

She also plans to start carrying a baseball bat for protection when
she goes to her car, which is parked in the back alley where denizens
of the suspected crack house often pass.

Another resident of the street, who didn't want to be identified, said
he is also planning to sell his Victorian-style brick house after just
three years on the street. He has several tenants living in the house.

"I own this house," he said from his front porch. "I have to leave. I
have to sell my house. This used to be a great street, now it's
terrible. Every day there's yelling, fighting. I'm very scared. All my
tenants are very scared. I don't want anybody to shoot me
accidentally." He said most of the young hooligans are in their teens
and early 20s and are often riding bicycles.

As he spoke, he pointed to a broken window on the third-storey dormer.
Another neighbour claimed a small hole on the front door was caused by
a gunshot.

Nobody answered the door yesterday.

The house -- which has a buff stucco finish and is assessed at
$213,000 -- is next to a medical clinic and backs onto Brennan House,
a 14-bed youth home operated by Good Shepherd Centres. According to
city assessment records, the Grant Street house is owned by an
absentee landlord called Metasan Iluliana and there were 10 tenants
living in the building as of the end of last year. A number of other
large houses on the street have also been converted into small
apartment buildings or rooming houses.

Norma Pearson, director of youth services for the centres, said the
Grant Street building has a reputation in the area as a "problem residence."

"I don't know that we've had specific problems at 4 Grant Avenue. We
know it's a problem house. They rent to homeless type kids. We always
warn our kids to stay in and stay away from the place," Pearson said.

She suggested the Grant Avenue house is part of a bigger problem
involving drugs and prostitution in this gritty section of east Hamilton.