Lynn cops hunt for assault gang

LYNN-Police continue to search for the suspects responsible for shooting and stabbing a 20-year-old Lynn man Monday near the corner of Ingalls and Chatham streets, police said.Jonathan Duncan was shot on Ingalls Street at about 4:45 p.m., according to police. He tried to run away from the group of four or five young men and got as far as Chatham Street when the suspects jumped on him in the middle of the road and began wailing on him, police and witnesses at the scene said.Linda Scuzzarella, a resident of 229 Chatham St., said she heard a “muffled” gunshot and looked outside when she saw the young men beating on the victim.”The kids were stepping on him and kicking him and got dirt all over his clothes,” Scuzzarella said. “The poor thing.”Police said that when Duncan fell to the ground in the street, one of the suspects stabbed him. Scuzzarella said that she ran out of her house and the suspects began to run away toward Essex Street.”I come running out and said, ‘Just stay there. Don’t move,'” she said.Paramedics treated Duncan as he lay on the corner of Chatham Street and Wells Place while Scuzzarella said she was by his side.Police aren’t saying if the shooting was gang-related, but did say Duncan was targeted.”This was not a random act of violence, and appears to have stemmed from a previous incident between the individuals,” Lynn police spokesperson Lt. David Brown said.Police and witnesses at the scene said it appeared Duncan was shot in the hand, but Brown said he wasn’t sure if the laceration was a result of a stab or being shot.As responding officers searched both Chatham and Ingalls streets for bullet casings, police discovered a bullet hole in the front of 62 Ingalls St., the home of Alexis Betancourt, 33, his wife, sister-in-law and 4-year-old nephew.State Police removed the bullet and are examining it as part of the investigation.Betancourt’s nephew was asleep in the rear of the home at the time of the shooting, and the boy’s mother was also home. Betancourt says he hasn’t noticed an increase in gang activity in the area, but has noticed an increase in car break-ins.”It’s not good,” Betancourt said. “We haven’t had anything like this before.”