Lewiston city officials, the chief of police and the Androscoggin County district attorney held a press conference on Thursday alongside local community organizations to announce their plan to prevent and respond to a recent surge of gun violence incidents.

Over the past eight months, Lewiston has seen 27 shots fired incidents — three of which were self-inflicted, and two of which involved a victim being shot by someone else.

Most recently, gunshots interrupted a refugee organization’s back-to-school event in Lewiston’s McGraw Park last Friday.

Earlier last week a juvenile male was injured in a drive-by shooting near the intersection of Pine and Jefferson Street in Lewiston, and in July a 17-year-old male was killed in a shooting at a public housing complex — one of three shootings that same weekend.

“We understand the community’s frustration, and I want to be clear: the Lewiston Police Department shares your frustrations,” said Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre. “The only acceptable number of shootings in any community is zero, and we’ve got some work to do to get there.”

Chief St. Pierre said that while his department is working “around the clock” on ongoing investigations into the recent shootings, the city’s police force and the court system is experiencing a lack of resources, exacerbating the problem with a backlog of cases.

“Despite the diligent work of our LPD officers and the district attorney’s office, cases are frequently dismissed, or the charges are significantly plead down,” St. Pierre said, acknowledging the public’s perception that “criminals are not held accountable due to these very issues.”

In order to increase police presence throughout the city, the Lewiston Police Department will be requesting additional funding from the City Council for three months of overtime.

St. Pierre said his department will also be seeking federal support from the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to assist in their gun violence investigations.

In his remarks to the press, District Attorney Neil McLean said that while “law enforcement is your frontline of defense for public safety, your prosecutors are your last line of defense — and we fight like crazy every day on behalf of public safety for you all.”

McLean said that there is an “unfortunate” narrative that the district attorney’s office is taking a “lazy approach” to prosecution cases. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

The district attorney said that the Androscoggin prosecutor’s office is down from 10 attorneys to six as of July 2023, and could have as few as five attorneys by April of next year to handle all criminal cases in the county.

McLean said that he, city officials and the Lewiston Police chief met with the city’s delegation to the State Legislature in order to propose policy changes to address the district attorney’s staffing needs, including increasing prosecutorial pay to make the job more appealing to potential hires.

On the matter of community engagement, Chief St. Pierre announced that his department and the city would be working with Lewiston Public Schools to offer parent information sessions.

Those sessions would include discussions with parents regarding the consequences of juvenile gun and drug possession.

Additionally, St. Pierre said that the city plans to hold monthly informal meetings with immigrant and refugee groups based in the area , in order to “build trust” between police and the local youth.

“The city will take a more active role in working with organizations who work with youth, immigrant[s], refugees, and first generation Americans,” the police chief said.

Representing Lewiston’s immigrant community organizations at the press conference were leaders of Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS) and Generational Noor.

“It pains me to see the ongoing violence that’s effecting our community,” said Amran Osman, Executive Director of Generational Noor. “Everyday it seems we are faced with another shooting, another loss.”

“Our city is better than this — we are a community that thrives on diversity and shared strength,” Osman said. “But to overcome these challenges we must come together. We need to stop othering each other, and pointing fingers.”

“We need to stop blame and division, because that only serves to weaken us,” she added. “Instead we must unite and support one another, and work together towards meaningful solutions.”

Rilwan Osman, Executive Director of MEIRS, said Thursday that his organization is a “willing partner” with the city and police “who are working toward keeping our community safe through collaboration and engagement.”

“Community safety is a top priority and we look forward to addressing these issues,” Osman said.