POUGHKEEPSIE – City of Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison and Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent Dr. Eric Rosser met on Charles Street at the site where 16-year-old Poughkeepsie High School student Frederick Wells was shot to death on Saturday night.
The weekend incident discussed by Rosser and Rolison resulted in one dead teenager and a second teen suffering from stab wounds, as reported here. Mayor Rolison noted that violent crime is down in the city over the last decade despite the incidents that occurred this past weekend.
“When people use violence to settle a dispute – when people use guns and knives to settle disputes, people can die and people can be seriously injured – and that’s what happened here,” according to Rolison. He noted that everyone in the city needs to take a stand against violence. “We as a community need to step up and say we are not going to tolerate this type of activity.”
In addition to the teenager’s death and the stabbing of another, two women sustained gunshot wounds in a separate incident. That information is available here. This year there have been three homicides, two of which were by firearm. Additionally, there have been 19 stabbings in 2020.
Dr. Rosser issued a plea to anyone with information about the death of the teen to please notify the police department. He also announced that counseling is available to any grieving student that wishes to address their feelings. Students or their parents can call the high school, visit the website, or reach out through Google Classroom. “We (Rosser and Rolison) are coming together to speak about how much we value this community.”
Rolison is “concerned” about the recent uptick in violence. “Rest assured we will not stop until we bring these individuals to justice and the public needs to know that our police department is doing everything that it can to keep this city safe.” The mayor also made a plea for witnesses to step forward. “We’ve got grieving families that need justice.” He asked anyone who was in the area of the shooting to call the police department. 845-451-7577. Non-emergency tips can be submitted anonymously on the city police website.
NEWS STORY PROVIDED BY: Mid Hudson News -www.midhudsonnews.com
A portion of the news conference can be viewed here: