SPRINGFIELD — The year 2023 set records in Springfield for the most homicides, the most guns seized and the most shell casings recovered. It seemed violence had peaked.
That was until June 5, when seven people armed with seven guns used an AR-15 to spray two undercover police cars. A suspect with a handgun then turned on uniformed officer Nestor Santos and shot him twice, leaving him blind in one eye.
Every day, police in Springfield chase loosely organized gangs from neighborhood to neighborhood and have seized a gun nearly every day over the past 2.5 years.
But gun violence continues.
Springfield police arrested 211 people on firearms charges last year and 101 people in the first half of 2024. Statistics show 162 people were wounded or killed by gunfire in the same 18 months.
Police, politicians and prosecutors said it takes a multi-pronged approach to fight gun violence, combining prevention and rehabilitation with investigations and arrests. But what is missing is help from two prongs, courts and lawmakers, they say.
Three years ago now-retired Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood said gun violence had grown into the biggest public safety issue in Springfield. In response she created the Firearms Investigation Unit and disbanded the troubled narcotics division.
In June, the U.S. surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis, validating her action.
Police Capt. Brian Keenan, head of the department’s Firearms Investigation Unit, said urban gun violence is at pandemic levels in Springfield. “The gun seizures are on the rise because there are more guns.”
The roughly 25 detectives of the firearms unit spend their days using investigative tools to ferret out people who have guns and no license to own them. They also investigate some drug crimes, which go hand-in-hand with firearms, and do other jobs.
Every year since 2021, the number of gun seizures has grown — from 225 to 341 to 348. Police seized 182 guns by June 24 this year.
“That’s the problem. Your neighbor has one, so you have to get one,” said Deputy Chief Steven Kent, who works closely with Keenan and Capt. Trent Duda, head of the Homicide Unit and Detective Bureau, to prevent and investigate violent crimes.
4,141 shell casings
In the 1990s, if police found a gun during a warrant search, it was rare and considered a serious crime. Now, if they don’t find a gun, officers figure they missed the hiding place, Duda said.
People who have the guns also seem more apt to pull the trigger, Keenan said.
One of the most eye-opening statistics from 2023, which ended with a record 31 homicides, was the number of shots fired. A total of 4,141 shell casings were recovered in shootings that took place in pretty much every city neighborhood. So far, 1,841 have been recovered this year, he said.
That doesn’t count the casings that were picked up by the shooters, rolled down a storm drain, lodged in buildings or cars and found months later in the grass and never reported, Kent said.
“In one day we collected 100 in five different shootings. Over 100 in one day,” Duda said.
There are so many shootings, they become routine. Over seven days in June, there were 30 confirmed shootings recorded by the ShotSpotter audio system that got little attention because no one was injured. There were others in the same time in areas not covered by the system, Kent said.
The newest worry is the increase of Glock switches. They are small devices added to a gun to make it fully automatic. They were so rare police never kept statistics until this year, when 14 have been confiscated, said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman.
While the number of shooting incidents has remained relatively constant over the past few years, the number of bullets fired has nearly doubled, likely due to the switches, he said.
A gun with a 50-round magazine and a Glock switch means the shooter is firing 50 rounds in four seconds. It’s difficult even for someone with experience to shoot a handgun accurately; police have tested guns equipped with the switches in training and cannot control them, Kent said.
“In four seconds you have 50 projectiles going somewhere in a densely populated urban area. Think about that. It’s insanity,” Kent said.
‘If someone had an answer’
It is terrifying for residents when they find their neighborhoods have become the latest hot spot for gang wars.
That happened June 5 on College Street, a relatively quiet neighborhood of well-maintained single- and two-family homes near American International College.
The shootings began with a suspect trying to bait rival gang members. Police saw increasingly threatening posts on social media. Members of the Firearms Unit started tracking them in undercover cars, Kent said.
No one is certain if the suspects knew the non-descript vehicles, one of which was a black Hyundai, were undercover cars when they started spraying them with bullets. The officers escaped harm, but a bullet lodged in one of their headrests.
At the same time Santos was in uniform driving to work and passed the scene. Kent said they don’t think suspects knew Santos was in uniform. The officer might have had the misfortune of owning a generic-looking vehicle similar to the two the detectives were driving.
“The car had tinted windows, so I think it was mistaken identity. They were shooting at the wrong car. The point is that could have been anyone,” Duda said.
The suspects fled the scene, firing shots as they drove. They grazed one man in the ear, smashed one car into a vehicle driven by a pregnant woman and mowed down three construction workers, leaving one with serious injuries. Luck was the reason the badly hurt worker wasn’t killed and the bystander wasn’t shot in the head, he said.
The Santos shooting took place in the Mason Square neighborhood, where City Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce grew up and a block from the border with Ward 5, which he represents. A high school basketball coach, he said he understands the importance of running youth programs to keep kids from getting into trouble.
At the same time, he constantly hears city residents’ fear and frustration that gun violence makes them feel unsafe even when they are taking a morning trip to the grocery store.
“If someone had an answer I know we would be in a better place, not just in Springfield but in the world,” Click-Bruce said.
Tools used by detectives
Police use a wide variety of techniques to track gang members and those illegally carrying guns in the hopes of preventing shootings like the one June 5. The Real Time Crime Analysis system, which uses software to manipulate images from cameras installed across the city, is one of those key tools.
The ShotSpotter system, installed in 2008 and expanded many times, is deemed “a game changer.” The three police officials scoffed at Massachusetts members of Congress who complained that the technology leads to over-policing in poor, Black and Latino communities.
“They will never live in a neighborhood that needs ShotSpotter. They are challenging a very useful tool that saves lives,” Keenan said.
Police have repeatedly responded to a ShotSpotter activation late at night to find a gunshot victim alone. Some would have died without immediate medical attention, Duda said.
“Your response time is quicker, you get to talk to people who are potential witnesses sooner and, more importantly, you may save a victim’s life,” Duda said.
Residents report three out of 10 shootings where evidence is discovered, showing the need for the system. There are many reasons people don’t call police. They believe the noise is fireworks, someone else already called or they are immune to it, Walsh said.
It isn’t because they are afraid of the police. When officers arrive at a scene, they talk to people and investigate or move on if a resident says a car backfired, he said.
“This is what no one seems to realize: Springfield residents love their cops and we love them. Every day the phone rings with calls from people in civic groups and people who want to be anonymous,” Keenan said.
Those residents make them want to keep going, especially after facing the frustration of seeing suspects they arrested with guns once, twice, three times back on the streets in days or sometimes hours, Keenan said.
“Do you know how many innocent people almost get killed by bullets whizzing through their house, through headboards, through walls?” Duda asked.
Bearing the high costs
The cost of crime is expensive and mostly borne by victims and taxpayers.
Springfield police officials estimate the Santos shooting will cost more than $1 million when his hospital care and the medical treatment for the remaining victims is tallied. Several of the shooters were also injured and hospitalized and bullet holes on police vehicles had to be fixed, he said.
“Somewhere the narrative has flipped, where the offender is now the victim and the victim is an afterthought … it doesn’t make any sense in the world,” Keenan said.
He used the example of the resident who works hard and buys a house in a neighborhood like Maynard and College streets. They replace windows or siding only to see it sprayed with bullets.
“Where is the guy getting $2,400 to fix his house again? Why would you even fix up your property?” he asked.
It isn’t just shootings. Car thefts are continually on the rise, especially Kias and Hyundais built without anti-theft software, making them easy to steal. In 2022, a total of 557 cars of all types were stolen in the city and that rose to 1,343 last year.
Those thefts affect more people’s quality of life than shootings and are devastating for residents who can’t take a day off and have no way to get to work. Most just want their car back, Keenan said.
“The biggest thing with juveniles is property crimes. The auto theft guys chase the same juveniles who break into cars, steal cars all summer long,” Duda said. “Some kids have 15, 20 car breaks under their belts.”
The problem is nothing happens to them when they are caught and that emboldens them, so the next time police catch the teens, they are also armed. Detectives have arrested juveniles in house breaks who are wearing court-ordered GPS tracking bracelets, he said.
Five of the seven suspects in the Santos shooting had been arrested for firearms crimes over the past 24 months or so. Three, including a 16-year-old who shot and critically wounded a teenager last year, were out of bail for other firearms cases, Kent said.
It isn’t the first go-around for many of the officers involved in the mayhem either. Two, including Santos, had guns pulled on them in April and May and one was involved in a shootout in 2019, Walsh said.
“It’s not in our job descriptions to be swore at, hit, shot at and spit upon,” Keenan said.
They argue the biggest problem lies with the court and with legislators who have relaxed laws and that would keep offenders behind bars.
Bail reform of 2018 has something to do with that. The law eliminated mandatory minimums for a lot of drug offenses and created diversion programs to keep low-level offenders, especially those who are young, out of jail.
One valuable crime-fighting tool used to be short three to six-month sentences that gave suspects time to cool off, get into drug rehab programs if needed and out of a dysfunctional home or away from street posses. Those don’t happen anymore, Keenan said.
It also meant there were three months, six months when they weren’t shooting off guns or getting shot themselves. The four adults in the June 5 shooting are now being held for 120 days following a dangerousness hearing and just that alone means there will be less violence this summer, he said.
Some of the reluctance to jail offenders is a backlash to excessive force committed by police nationwide especially against Black and Latino suspects. That came to a head around 2020 with the death of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police officers during a misdemeanor arrest. The officers were later convicted of murder.
But police and area politicians frustrated by the growing gun violence call the problems part of a “failed social experiment” where legislators from affluent communities with few gun crimes passed laws making it hard to control urban violence.
Tracing rogue guns
Police try to find where rogue guns come from, from especially through a partnership with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but more than 10% seized annually are handmade ghost guns and others have obliterated serial numbers that render them untraceable.
Officials for the ATF did not respond to requests for comment.
“We trace them as best we can but the guns get passed around 15 times from point of origin,” Keenan said.
Guns are used as currency and traded for drugs. Girlfriends and friends who have no criminal records make legal purchases and give them to those who have records and cannot legally apply for permits, he said.
The city could also use more help from the U.S. attorney. Although it’s illegal to take a gun across state lines without proper permits, rarely do criminals face federal charges, which would serve as a bigger deterrent, Keenan said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond for requests for comment.
Every time the firearms unit confiscates a gun, it means there is one fewer weapon that can be used to kill or injure someone. But it is a little like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. All guns seized in a crime are destroyed after trials.
“You are never going to make illegal guns unavailable. You have to attack it from the offenders’ side,” Kent said. “There are so many guns and they last forever.”
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