Muna Ali, left, and Samaya Mohamed stand Monday on Knox Street in Lewiston where two people were fatally shot Sunday morning. “Yesterday was a very sad day,” Ali said, adding that both victims were friends of her brothers. “I hope it never happens again,” Mohamed said. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — Autopsies on two people were conducted Monday, a day after they were shot to death on Knox Street, the spokesperson for Maine Department of Public Safety said Monday evening.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner completed an autopsy on one of the victims and the second autopsy was underway she said early Monday evening. Their identities and manner of death were not immediately released.

No one had been detained or arrested as of Monday evening.

Lewiston police responded to 911 calls of a shooting around 10:18 a.m. Sunday, Lewiston police spokesman Lt. Derrick St. Laurent. Maine State Police detectives and evidence response technicians responded and took the lead on the case, he said.

Moss said Sunday evening that one person died on Knox Street and the other at Central Maine Medical Center. She said the incident appeared to be isolated and that there were no known threats to the public.

Flowers lie Monday near 54 Knox St. in Lewiston where a man was shot to death Sunday morning. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Several people on social media stated a vehicle riddled with bullet holes was cordoned off at the CMMC emergency entrance.

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St. Laurent said Sunday evening that he believed the action at CMMC was related to the shooting. Taping off the emergency entrance is not typical unless evidence, like a vehicle, needs to be preserved, he said later.

On Monday, Knox Street was active with children playing at the playground, pedestrians and traffic. A pile of flowers laid near the spot where the body had been and yellow crime scene tape could be seen stuffed in a trash bin outside one residence. Several people on the street declined to comment, but acknowledged there was still fear in the neighborhood, though life is mostly moving on.

Discarded crime scene tape hangs Monday from trash bins on Knox Street in Lewiston, a day after two people were fatally shot there Sunday morning. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

“Some tension, yes,” one woman said. “Everybody is sad, but that’s life though.”

Samaya Mohamed and Muna Ali walked their neighborhood Monday, acknowledging the general dangers of living on Knox Street. Ali said the man who was killed on the street was a friend of her brothers.

Though murder is not a common occurrence, periodic gunshots and fights are, the two said. Parents are afraid for their children when they go outside and nobody likes going out at night, they said.

“It’s not safe,” Mohamed said. “Anything can happen at any time and everybody’s carrying a gun. It could be a fight over a pair of shoes.”

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The shooting left the neighborhood rattled and angry, both women agreed.

The dead man’s body remained on the sidewalk for several hours waiting for investigators to arrive to process the scene, police said.

Regardless, Mohamed said, it was maddening to her and others that police were hydrating, applying sunscreen and passing the time chatting before the body in plain sight of the public.

“There are a lot of kids that play around here, so imagine if they see something like that,” Mohamed said. “What’s going to happen, what’s that going to do to them? It took hours, it was so hot and he was literally laying on the ground, and (police) said they had to wait for the investigation. Everybody was saying, ‘do something about it’ and they weren’t doing anything about it.”

St. Laurent said Monday that it is policy for police not to move or disturb a body so evidence can be processed, but it is typical a body would be covered after it is determined the person is dead and crime scene evidence is gathered.

“We have to mark shell casings, firearms if there are any, and . . . when we process any scene even when the body is covered, people still get upset it’s out in the open,” St. Laurent said. “Unfortunately, people just have to choose to look away when we’re doing our jobs . . . But I’m not sure why the body wasn’t covered . . . usually paramedics will do that.”

St. Laurent said he would ask officials why that did not happen.

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