Lynn cops: Despite proximity, no security boost near schools

LYNN – Despite a bloody weekend that saw shootings and gang activity in close proximity to city schools, Lynn Police say there is no need to bolster security near those schools this week.Police do plan on increasing gang unit pat-rols in and around known gang neighborhoods to try to prevent retaliatory shootings, but say there is no connection between any weekend incident and the area schools.Four separate incidents of gunfire kept police busy Saturday night into Sunday morning, the most serious of which took place on Neptune Street, where two Lynn teenagers were shot just blocks away from Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute.The violent attack sent one teen to Salem Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and a second to Massachusetts General Hospital with a chest wound.Witnesses say the suspects fled in a gray Nissan and police had yet to make an arrest in connection with the shootings Monday night.The first attack was followed by gunfire on Summer Street and later Lowell Street, both of which are just around the corner from the first Neptune Street incident, and the LVTI Annex Building.While police were investigating the Neptune Street incidents, more shots rang out just around the corner at Elm and South Common streets, again just a few blocks way from the Connery Elementary School located at 50 Elm St.Police made it clear that the shootings had nothing to do with either school, although some of the victims and possible suspects may be high school-aged, and say they do not need to bulk up patrol at those schools this week.”There was no nexus between the school and the shootings which took place over the weekend,” said Lynn Police Lt. William Sharpe. “However, we typically assign officers in the area of the high schools and some of the middle schools during dismissal.”LVTI Director James Ridley said Monday that neighborhood violence is always a concern when it takes place so close to the school, but at this point it does not appear that anyone involved attends or are related to anyone who attends the school.”It is always a concern because a lot of time you see it happen in the neighborhood close to the school,” he said. “But as far as we know there are no people involved in this situation that are involved with any people at our school. It is unfortunate that it took place so close to the school, but at the same time there was an incident on the other side of the city, too.”LVTI is one of several secondary schools to utilize video surveillance in and around its campus, but the incidents took place far enough away from the school where that video would not have captured any shooting incidents.Saturday night’s incident is not the first to take place near a city high school. Police responded to a drive-by shooting outside of Classical High School last May, using some of the surveillance video from that school’s cameras as evidence.