Officials: Fitchburg still safe after string of shootings

FITCHBURG — Following the third shooting on Fitchburg’s streets in five days, two officials are assuring residents that the city is still safe.

Police Chief Ernest F. Martineau and Mayor Stephen L. DiNatale issued public statements on the shootings, which killed 23-year-old Leon Wilson Jr. of Fitchburg and wounded two, at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

“I’ve been asked several times in the last few days if Fitchburg’s safe,” Martineau said. “My response to this question starts with our intense focus on current events, and not to minimize these current events and their victims. Public safety, much like perception of crime, is individualized. Having been a police officer in this city going on 33 years, I can assure you Fitchburg is moving in the right direction and Fitchburg is safe.”

Wilson was shot around 9 p.m. Thursday near 30 Blossom St. He was transported to UMass Memorial-HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster, where he was pronounced dead.

“No matter what the circumstance, any loss of life is tragic,” Martineau said. “And I would like to assure the surviving family that the very best resources have been committed and are working diligently to bring justice to this senseless act of violence. While I will not comment on these active investigations, I can say we have some of the finest in law enforcement working on bringing closure to these cases.”

The second shooting, which occurred around 25 minutes later near 48 Goddard St., left a man slightly injured after several shots were fired at the car in which he was sitting.

Then, at around 2:15 a.m. Monday, a 22-year-old man walked into the Fitchburg police station and said he had been shot on Blossom Street, near where Wilson was killed. He was transported and treated at a local hospital.

“The loss of a child and family member is always the greatest pain to endure,” DiNatale said. “I can assure the family and the public the combined efforts of the Fitchburg Police Department, along with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police, are doing all they can to bring the perpetrators of this act to justice. We continue to assure the citizens of Fitchburg that our city is indeed safe, and that these incidences are calculated acts.”

Anyone with information about the three shootings should call the Fitchburg Police Department Detective Bureau at (978) 345-9650 or Massachusetts State Police at (508) 829-8326.