http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2011/01/04/news/doc4d226194211cb608688347.txt?viewmode=4
Sottile said he was “very concerned” that city police did not know the party was to take place and at 59 O’Neil St.
“Three hundred (patrons) knew about this (party),” Sottile said. “I think we need to fine tune our intel operations. I think that this slipped through the cracks and I hope we don’t have any more slip through the cracks.”
Sottile added, “How is something of this magnitude done in secrecy?
“I mean, a group of 300 people can go to an illegal setting undetected,” Sottile said. “That certainly concerns me. ... Where is our intel at this organization (the police department).”
Sottile made his comments Monday, two days after three people were shot and another beaten early Saturday during a New Year’s Eve party.
Monday evening, police arrested a suspect in the shooting. Jeffrey A. Keith, 20, of 204 Salem St., Port Ewen, a recent state prison parolee, was charged in the shooting of a Kingston man and the pistol-whipping of a Poughkeepsie woman at the party, according to Detective Lt. Timothy Matthews.
Keith, who was released from prison after serving three years on a felony drug conviction, was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal use of a firearm, all felonies, Matthews said. He was being held pending arraignment in Kingston City Court.
The four victims were still hospitalized, Matthews said. He declined to identify them by name. He had said previously a man from Kingston was shot in the chest, a man from Newburgh was shot in the abdomen and hand, a man from Newburgh was shot in the leg and a woman from Poughkeepsie was struck in the head with a pistol butt.
Matthews said Sunday that police believe the weapon used was a small-caliber handgun and that there was “more than one shooter.” A fight among women apparently set off the incident, he said
Other city officials including Alderwoman Andi Turco-Levin, R-Ward 1, who is the council’s minority leader, are questioning how it is that the city did not know an illegal nightclub was being established at the building.
Turco-Levin also agreed with Sottile the police department should have been aware the party was scheduled and could have moved to shut it down.
“I would have to agree with him that they should have been a lot more proactive in finding out what was going on,” Turco-Levin said.
Turco-Levin pointed out the party was announced on the Facebook page of the Newburgh-based Street Cannibals motorcycle club.
The alderwoman also suggested city departments should be more aggressive. Turco-Levin said she did not seek to blame any particular department.
“To me, they should be rooting this stuff out,” Turco-Levin said. “They should be proactive in watching for violations and listening to the community.”
In the O’Neil Street building case, authorities such as Matthews and Fire Chief Richard Salzmann say there were no community complaints about the spot becoming a nightclub.
Two people — Kiswan McComb, 35, of 442 Hasbrouck Ave., and Dezmond Stokes, 35, of 61 Elmendorf St. — were charged with felony reckless endangerment for running an illegal nightclub in an unsafe manner without the proper building code certificates of occupancy and zoning board permits, police said.
“We would like to know about every crime before it happens,” said Matthews, referring to Sottile’s comments.
The lieutenant said would-be criminals do much to keep their illegal acts sheltered from law enforcement authorities. If the department had information on the gathering at an illegally established nightclub, it is likely it would have been shut down, Matthews said The party started at 10 p.m. on Friday and ended with the shooting which occurred shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday, police said.
“It is not like they put an announcement on the community board at Hannaford’s,” Matthews said. “It wasn’t something they wanted spread through the community. If we had intelligence that this was going to happen, if we had been notified, we would have (shut it down). We were not privy to it.”
Matthews said there had been no complaints to the police department of illegal parking in the neighborhood or noise before the shooting took place.
Police Chief Gerald Keller said he had no comment on Sottile’s comments. Keller said he had not yet had a discussion with the mayor about the issue.
Keller said the space inside the building had only recently been transformed into a nightclub. He said the New Year’s Eve party sponsored by the motorcycle club was the first event held there.
Alderman Thomas Hoffay, D-Ward 2, said he also agreed with the mayor, saying patrol cars ride up and down O’Neil Street at all hours of the night.
Hoffay, who lives nearby, said the landlord of the building also needed to be “held accountable.”
Keller said the McComb and Stokes told the landlord, Paul Benkert, that the space was being made into a recording studio.
Salzmann, who is also head of the Building Safety Division, said no one submitted building permits to his office. He said the exterior of the building “looks the same as it has for the past 20 years.
“We do rely on the public to tell us when there is a problem and nobody did because nobody knew what was going on (inside),” Salzmann said.
The fire chief said the Building Safety Division has two full-time building inspectors and three part-times ones. At one time, the department had four full-time inspectors and no part-timers, Salzmann said.
However, Salzmann said, the city could have “had 30 full-time” inspectors and the illegal nightclub may not have been discovered.
