As police continue to search for suspects in the murder of Juan “Mono” Gonzalez, 20 and Edgar Fernandez, 19, who were gunned down in a recent overnight shooting in Corona that appears to be gang-related, many community leaders are wasting no time in addressing the issue of gangs in their community.
“I do think it is a growing problem,” said City Councilmember Julissa Ferreras, who represents the area where the shooting took place. “The way it can get worse is if we don’t have a community response to it.”
Almost immediately after the shooting took place Ferreras was in touch with her State Legislative colleagues, Assemblymembers Jose Peralta and Jeffrion Aubry and State Senator Hiram Monserrate about how the community should tackle the problem. Ferreras said the leaders are planning to host a town hall meeting on public safety within the next two weeks, and they are looking into doing a gun buyback program – where people could turn in their guns for cash with no questions asked – similar to the ones that occurred in houses of worship in southeast Queens earlier this year.
“This is an issue that right now is an isolated incident, but we can’t have the gangs take control of our streets,” Ferreras said.
Meanwhile Peralta, who has made educating parents and students about the dangers of gangs a priority during his tenure in the Assembly, believes that more funding – on a federal, state and local level – is necessary to combat the gang activity in northwest Queens.
Peralta plans to meet with Congressmember Joseph Crowley in the hopes of acquiring additional federal funding to restore the Roosevelt Avenue Taskforce, which predominantly consisted of undercover police officers and detectives charged with cleaning up Roosevelt Avenue.
“We want to make sure that people’s quality of life is not only great, but constantly improved on a day-to-day basis,” Peralta said. “When you have areas that are plagued by gangs it becomes a real problem.”
In addition, Peralta and Ferreras hope to secure more funding for the Queens District Attorney’s Gang Violence and Hate Crimes Unit, which conducts workshops for parents and students at schools that are believed to be a hotbed for gang recruiting.
Peralta said that even if their aren’t gang-related crimes in the community for a period of time, they cannot forget about the issue.
“It’s a false positive that gets us feeling comfortable,” he said. “Incidents like theses give us a wakeup call and remind us of the danger.”
