> News > Local News

Email: "Random victims"
*To:		<--TO Email REQUIRED!
*From:		<--FROM Email REQUIRED!

Describing Friday’s shootings in the city as “one of the most horrific days in the history of Williamsport,” mayor-elect Gabriel J. Campana on Saturday said one of his first priorities after taking the oath of office Monday will be to begin working with City Council in hiring “at least” three additional police officers for the city.

Campana also said he will not reconsider any of the recently announced changes for his incoming city administration

He said he does not think the shootings are, in any way, an attack against or retaliation against his tough-on-crime platform.

Campana announced on Thursday several administrative changes, including eliminating the public safety director position held by Michael Hudak Jr. and naming city police Sgt. Gregory Foresman as police chief, replacing Gary Whiteman.

On Saturday, Campana reiterated his confidence in those choices and announced his intention to conduct a “public news conference” at 7 p.m. tonight in City Council Chambers to talk about the public safety initiatives he will institute when he takes over as mayor. While he termed it a news conference, Campana said he would welcome attendance by anybody who is concerned about violent crime here.

Campana told the Sun-Gazette that because he has not been sworn in yet as mayor, he is not privy to much information about the four shootings Friday night.

Campana said he received a call from J.R. Homler with the Williamsport Crime Commission shortly after 11 p.m. informing him of “some shootings in the city” and their locations.

The mayor-elect then went to the Uni-Mart shooting site and talked to officers on the scene.

“They were not specific with me,” Campana said, saying that most of what he knows about Friday’s shootings he’s heard from phone calls from citizens and media reports.

Campana said that as of Saturday afternoon, he had not spoken with Mayor Mary B. Wolf but planned to call her and council members to invite them to tonight’s news conference.

When the Sun-Gazette spoke with Wolf, she had not yet spoken to Campana or heard about his news conference and, therefore, declined to comment on it or whether she’d be attending.

Wolf also declined to comment on the shootings, referring questions to Whiteman so as to not compromise the investigation.

“It’s still under investigation,” Wolf said. “All forces are on deck.”

Along with planning tonight’s news conference, Campana said he would spend his weekend “returning calls from taxpayers ... reassuring them that things are going to be OK in this city.”

Though his duties as mayor don’t begin until Monday, Campana said he contacted the state Attorney General’s Office and scheduled a meeting for “very early next week” with a representative from that office. He also spoke with state Rep. Steven W. Cappelli, R-Williamsport, about the shootings.

The hiring of three additional police officers for the city, Campana said, is not his only plan of action for addressing violent crime, but he declined to elaborate.

“We have some other initiatives that I cannot comment on at this time, but when the time is appropriate, believe me, we will contact the media,” Campana said.

The news conference, he said, is “to listen to the citizens, listen to their concerns ... and we’re going to talk about community policing.”

“The bottom line is, we need more police officers out on the street, but for me to do that, I need support from City Council and, very shortly, I am going to approach council about adding at least three police officers, and I can do it,” Campana said. “My administration can do it without raising taxes.”

“My objective is ... to have the citizens participate, to listen to the incoming mayor.”

Campana said tonight’s meeting is going to be the first of other similar evening and weekend meetings intended to create a more “transparent government” under his administration.

“For such a long period of time, we’ve had meetings in the afternoon when people cannot attend and under my administration ... we’re going to conduct these meetings when people can attend these meetings,” Campana said.

 

Subscribe to Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Share:

---

Tonight in Prime Time

---