It was a violent Thursday afternoon on Syracuse's west side. There was a stabbing and a double shooting all within an hour of each other. Hector Sepulveda, 33, was found in the street on Merriman Avenue with gunshot wounds to both legs. The second shooting victim, Fafael Frias, 19, was shot in the buttocks. And police say ballistic evidence shows two separate weapons were used on the men. As our Katie Gibas reports, those who live and work in the neighborhood say the violence needs to stop.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Antointette Henry and Antanese Alexander walk around neighborhoods going door to door for their work. Thursday, they were in Syracuse's west side.
"Basically, we were walking down the street two blocks over and someone said, 'Be careful because someone just got stabbed and someone just got shot,'” Alexander said.
Around 2:40 p.m. Thursday, police arrived on the scene of a double shooting on Merriman Avenue.
"Anytime that we have bullets flying down here in the middle of the street in the middle of the day, children are out. You can see there's a lot of people because it's a nice day. It's a very dangerous situation," Syracuse Police Sergeant Tom Connellan said.
Both men were taken to University Hospital.
Then less than half an hour later, just two blocks away at the corner of Merriman and Geddes, two women were fighting when one stabbed the other. Carmen Ramos, 26, was arguing with Jonalis Pizarro, 18, over money when the argument turned physical. Pizarro stabbed Ramos in the abdomen.
Ramos was transported to Upstate University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Pizarro was arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
"That should be a major concern for anybody. Violence is no joke nowadays and it seems like it happens every day. And it's young kids killing young kids and that's no good," Henry said.
Alexander said, "People should be ashamed of themselves because what if that was somebody's daughter? What if that was somebody's son? And they're out there shooting or bullets go into somebody's house and innocent people are getting shot. People are not worrying about that. They're shooting just to shoot, but they need to worry about what's going on in real life. This is not cartoons. Grow up."
As for Alexander and Henry, they'll keep going door to door for their job, but they say they're definitely going to be more aware of their surroundings as there seems to be no end to the violence.
The investigation into both incidents is still on going. Police are asking anyone with any information to call their Criminal Investigations Division at (315) 442-5222. Calls can be taken anonymously.