LEWISTON — One woman was in her bathroom in the wee morning hours last week when the sound of gunfire outside her home prompted her to scurry for cover.

She survived that ordeal and was just calming down when, an hour or so later, more shots rang out, near enough to wake her son.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Kristen Globensky, the mother of four. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Another woman was sitting with her family at their Nichols Street home Thursday night when what sounded like two groups began exchanging gunfire just outside her window.

This family, too, ducked for cover. Later, they would find a bullet hole in the side of their home just 3 or 4 feet from where they had been sitting.

The woman, who did not want to be named, had moved to Nichols Street from Walnut Street in February specifically to get away from daily gunfire.

After a reasonably quiet winter, gunfire seems to be coming back to Lewiston and the violence isn’t confined to just one area.

One day it’s Pierce Street, deep within the residential downtown. A day later, more shots are fired on Bartlett Street, down near the mosque and Italian Bakery. Then it’s Nichols Street, a mile away in a relatively quiet neighborhood close to Bates College.

All of that within 24 hours.

And this is a city that has already been badly scarred by gun violence.

“I feel like after Oct. 25 (2023), the atmosphere in town changed,” Globensky said. “Like we were desensitized to the sound of sirens and then that tragedy occurred and now you’re wondering in the back of your head if it’s happening again.

“With the most recent shootings, it’s just gone way overboard,” she said. “It’s almost an everyday thing now. We don’t even want to be here anymore, which is sad because Lewiston is home.”

Globensky has lived in Lewiston just about all of her life. But in her view, the frequency of gunfire in a city can only lead to one thing: Sooner or later, an innocent bystander is going to get caught in the spray of rounds meant for someone else.

Globensky doesn’t want to be around to see it. She and her kids have been talking in all seriousness about moving away.

“There are also so many friends I speak to on a regular basis that also want out,” she said. “The last thing we need is an innocent person losing their lives because people wanna act like we’re in Harlem and there’s a turf war.”

POLICE RESPOND

Gunfire has been particularly heavy in Lewiston over the past two summers. That situation constantly vexed the last Lewiston Police Department administration.

David St. Pierre, police chief until last September, put saturation patrols on the streets, focusing on the most hard hit areas. He held news conferences and met with city officials to come up with new ways to address the problem of random gunfire.

But the shootings went on unabated. Now Carly Conley, Lewiston’s newest police chief, has inherited those problems.

Conley on Friday said she knows that the issue of gunfire is among the most concerning for the local population.

“The men and women of the department are aware of the impact these incidents have on local residents and their feelings of safety,” the chief said on Friday. “The department is committed to using all resources to address these issues for our residents.”

Presently, Conley said, the department is reallocating resources from patrol and criminal investigation divisions to increase police presence on the streets, particularly in the most problematic areas.

The department is also utilizing officers from a variety of federal agencies, some of whom are housed at the new Lewiston police station, to combat gunfire.

Although she didn’t get into specifics, Conley said the department will be “employing all available technological tools and resources” as they continue to investigate the source of the shootings.

That technology could involve AI-enhanced surveillance cameras around the city that police have already credited with helping to solve several crimes, including three shootings.

At a presentation at the start of the year, Conley also discussed the possible use of “first-responder drones,” which are capable of getting to a scene in seconds to provide aerial coverage and intelligence to human officers.

Like other investigators, though, Conley stressed that even with technology and a bolstered number of cops on the streets, the cooperation of the public is still key in getting crimes solved, including downtown shootings from which suspects scatter so quickly.

“As always,” the chief said, “we encourage any citizen with information on these events to contact the police department.”

FEAR FOR RESIDENTS

For the residents of this city, fear over the shootings has evolved slowly into anger. And that anger is starting to grow very loud. Some see Lewiston as a place that’s about to boil over into revolt.

“What is being done to stop this?” asks Pauline Gudas, a former probation officer. “The mayor has established a second public safety committee but there have been no published meetings, agendas or minutes. Taxpayers are already upset with the revaluations and uncontrolled spending by this council for the last four years.

“What is it going to take to wake up the city? Does an innocent child or grandma have to be killed? Does a police officer have to die? Or will it take a police officer to shoot one of these armed thugs who may be a juvenile to protect himself or others? Imagine the outrage. Or what if a citizen decides to defend themselves? Enough is enough.”

Most of the victims and suspects identified from recent shootings have been young people, often juveniles. For some, arresting those offenders isn’t enough. Getting to the kids before they get involved in street warfare to begin with would be a good place to start.

“Parents need to be involved,” Gudas said, “and if they are furnishing the guns or knowingly letting their children have them then they need to be charged.”

As always, when locals talk about the gunfire problem in Lewiston, they talk about collateral damage.

When shots were fired Thursday on Bartlett Street, Brand LeClair, owner of the Italian Bakery, quietly did what he could. He pursued the shooter from a safe distance to gather information. He went through surveillance footage in search of something that would help the police.

Then he sent out word that the bakery would close for the day due to the tumult in the neighborhood.

The Italian Bakery serves as a example of the people and places that have nothing at all to do with these street skirmishes, but which get pulled into the fray nonetheless.

One woman Friday said she and her family had already given up shopping at Ward’s on Pine Street because of frequent gunfire. She said she was considering giving up the Italian Bakery, too, and for the same reason.

The impact gunfire has on uninvolved parties is immense.

When gunshots are reported in Lewiston, schools often have to lock down. Bus drivers find themselves in a potential crossfire with buses filled with children.

Dog walkers duck for cover. Business owners lock their doors until police arrive. Downtown streets are frequently closed while police gather up shell casings and search for the shooters.

In the Thursday afternoon shooting on Bartlett Street, police had a suspect in custody within minutes. They often make arrests in these shootings, although on most occasions, it happens only after long investigations that involve scouring surveillance camera footage and fanning out across the city.

These shootings take police away from other matters, officials said, tying up officers who might be needed elsewhere.

Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline, whose name is frequently invoked by those who demand solutions to the problem, said it will take, not just the police department, but the entire community to take on the matter with any tangible results.

“I appreciate the Lewiston Police Department’s quick response to the recent shootings and excellent detective work that has resulted in apprehending many of the suspects,” Sheline said. “While the police will be deploying increased neighborhood patrols, community safety is everyone’s responsibility. If you see something, say something. In addition, if you have information regarding an active case, please contact the police department and share what you know. We need to continue to work together to keep our city safe.”

But to many residents, that feels like just more rhetoric. They’ve heard promises before and they’ve heard appeals for public help, yet the gunfire continues.

A Blake Street woman who calls herself Alice said she can often predict when shootings are going to occur just by watching people out her window. She’ll see small groups of young men poised on the corner as if in wait. More often than not, Alice said, shots will be heard within minutes.

“It’s a scary place to live,” she said. “I don’t see as many people out walking as I used to, especially at night.”

A fellow named Joe, who lives on Pierce Street, said he’ll be roused by gunfire not once a day, but often several times. Early Thursday morning, he was rattled by shots just around the corner on Jefferson Street. Roughly 12 hours later, he was rattled again, this time by the gunfire that closed the bakery on Bartlett Street.

Like Alice, Joe said he can identify certain problem buildings in the downtown. Both have come to accept gunfire as a way of life in the residential heart of Lewiston.

But most people are not ready to accept it so easily. Within minutes of a shooting in Lewiston, social media becomes ablaze with local people talking about it. The more passionate among those people will throw blame at city leaders and repeat their demands for solutions.

But there are always more than a few people like Globensky, too, who have come to feel like the city has become too dangerous in which to live. These people talk of an earnest need to flee Lewiston just as a matter of keeping their families safe. These are folks who have lived their whole lives here and who have survived violence in the past, including the 2023 mass shooting.

For those people, near daily gunfire that can happen any time, anywhere is just too much to bear.

“It’s truly sad to see what’s become of our city,” Globensky said. “It makes me so sad, but this is too much even for me.”