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Youth Violence In North Buffalo a Major Issue

Eric Ortner
North Buffalo Rocket

February 2000: There has been some significant youth violence in North Buffalo the past several weeks. The first of which involved a gang of youth that were causing trouble on Hertel Avenue and resulted in four arrests. The most recent occurrence took place at the Lafayette Ice Rink on Saturday, January 22 at 7 p.m. which left one North Buffalo youth in critical condition.

Councilmember Coppola commented, “They’re both isolated instances, and that is what I want to make clear to North Buffalo residents. It’s just been so disappointing, probably the most disappointing time I have spent as an elected official. One week I’m at ECMC and the other I’m at Children’s. I talked to the mother. The concern and worry on her face, and she said to me, ‘why did this happen!’”

Councilmember Coppola was referring to the mother of a 16 year old Crescent Avenue resident. Her son was a spectator who attended an Explorer League hockey game that went bad. The boy sustained a serious head injury which required surgery. This was by no means a small occurrence. As many as fifteen to twenty high school students were involved in the serious altercation which hurt five additional people.

The incident started inside the Ice Rink as McKinley fans and Riverside players exchanged some harsh words. Events then continued to unfold outside as the Riverside players left the rink. Weapons such as hockey sticks, baseball bats and pipes were all part of the violent conflict.

Apparently there were no players from McKinley involved in the battle. However, there were as many as 50 different people who witnessed the incident.

City of Buffalo Public Information Officer Lt. Larry Baehre commented on the matter by saying, “One side says they were taunting the other side and vice-versa. It’s difficult to determine what exactly happened when we have this many people involved. The detectives are still on a preliminary investigation. Marty Bayerl was assigned the case. But yesterday was his last day, so now he is on vacation for three or four days. Now Danny Direnda has picked the ball up and he is working on the case. There is the McKinley side, the Riverside and then the real side of the story.”

There is supposed to be security at these games. According to Parks Commissioner Daniel T. Durawa, “We’ve asked them (the Explorer League) to provide security, and they have an off duty police officer on guard. That’s because anytime you get large groups of kids together like this you have problems. I can’t tell you specifically any previous incidents, but there probably has been some.” Apparently there was in fact security at the game, because some of the culprits had been removed from the game.

Although this has been a serious instance of violence in North Buffalo, it is not the only one as of late. The other situation is a result of gang violence. Recently there has been a group of kids causing various problems on Hertel Avenue. They called themselves the “Killer Bees.” They have been believed to be responsible for a rash of graffiti, and broken windows in the area.

District police officers were aware of their activities, but were unable to prosecute because there had been no witnesses willing to come forward. The gangs activity escalated to an extreme on January 9th at the corner of Commonwealth and Hertel at 9:15 p.m.

Three people, a 17 year old white male, his girlfriend, and another friend were walking down Hertel Avenue. Little did they know what was lurking ahead of them in a parking lot there. According to Lt. Larry Baehre, a group of youth were hanging out in the parking lot. One of the gang members bet another five squares (cigarettes) that he wouldn’t hit the kid in the head with a hammer.

The offender then approached the three youth and told them to give up their money. The innocent group of kids continued there journey down Hertel Avenue. At this point the culprit struck the victim in the face with a machinist hammer. The youth attempted to get up and defend himself. Other members of the gang then jumped in.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital. He was found to have sustained concussions which left him with partial amnesia and short term memory loss. Other injuries include fractures to the head and a ruptured sinus cavity. He has also experienced blurred vision as a result of ruptured blood vessels.

According to the official police report as many as 8-10 culprits were involved in the attack. The detectives in D District finally had witnesses to the gangs activities due to this unfortunate assault. As a result there have been four arrests made, and two more are expected in the near future. Lt. Baehre elaborated on the arrests by saying, “2 were 15 year old juveniles and they will be tried as adults.”

They are facing charges of assault in the first, attempted robbery in the first, and possession of a weapon in the fourth. Bahere said, “The Juveniles were arrested on the 18th at about 3:30 in the afternoon.” Once they were brought into custody, they started pointing fingers at the others involved. This led to the arrest of an eighteen year-old, and a nineteen year-old who face the same charges. “They all live in the area, Commonwealth, Shoreham, Traymore and Tacoma,” said Lt. Bahere.

According to Lt. Bahere, “Some of the statements that these kids make are just frightening. These are vicious vicious predators this was done for kicks they are vicious sociopaths. They have been taken off the streets, and hopefully the courts will do there job and leave them there.”

The detectives investigating these cases have refused to respond to the North Buffalo Rocket’s repeated attempts at contacting them. However Councilmember Coppola said, “The police did a good job and should be commended for their efforts.” He continued by saying, “Both instances (Tacoma and Hertel) are sad, but I want people who live in North Buffalo that this is not an everyday occurrence. There aren’t gangs running around on Hertel Avenue, at least not anymore. The real question that everyone is asking is where are the parents? We’ve got to bring them into the equation. Some of this stuff has to be taken care of at home.”