SALEM — The shot fired Thursday night inside a Boston Street apartment building, which went through the floor and barely missed a young father in the apartment below, has rattled this working-class neighborhood on the edge of the city's McIntire Historic District.
There has been drug activity on the street in the recent past, but not shootings, a neighbor said. And even though this incident at 11 Boston St. appears accidental, it raised concerns when police said the people involved had gang connections.
"It's kind of a unique incident for Boston Street," said Cathie Moskovis, a member of the Ward 4/Gallows Hill Neighborhood Association. "... There are some problems, but nothing at that level. It concerns me that the gangs are getting a little too close to home. The middle school is right there. These kids walk home."
The apartment building is around the corner from Collins Middle School.
City records show the property owner is John Chamatsos of Peabody.
Reached yesterday, Chamatsos disputed the initial police report that the apartment was rented out to Jose Morales, 23, a suspect in a November 2005 drive-by shooting in Salem.
He said the apartment was being rented to Joe Rodriguez, a man in his late 30s, who has been a good tenant and whose family had lived there previously.
Detective Tom Brennan said they received a call yesterday from a man who said he was renting the apartment with Morales. He said he will check with the landlord to verify the tenant of record.
Meanwhile, police say they believe that Alfred Cochrane Jr., 23, of Lynn was handling a shotgun when he accidentally fired it into his foot and through the floor to a bed below. The father of two young children was sitting a few feet from the bed, police said.
"I'm not a ballistics expert ... but it looks like a shotgun slug," Brennan said.
Cochrane was taken to Salem Hospital and later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he was discharged yesterday. In an interview with police, he denied firing a gun.
"He was denying the whole thing," Brennan said. "He basically tried to tell me he had a car up on a jack and the jack fell on his foot."
Police said they found a bullet hole in the floor, a slug in the bed below, blood upstairs in the building and a trail of blood from the rear of the building to a nearby parking lot.
"It took down a good chunk of the ceiling," Brennan said of the apparent shotgun blast.
Police said Cochrane was driven to Salem Hospital by Kevin Silva, 17, of Peabody following the 7:46 p.m. incident. Silva was arrested in the hospital parking lot on two charges, including operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.
Police plan to summons Cochrane on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm in a dwelling and malicious damage.
Both Cochrane and Silva are associated with the Latin Kings gang, according to information Salem police received from the Lynn police gang unit.
The Latin Kings is one of Lynn's most active gangs, with about 100 members and associates, Lynn police said.
As of late yesterday, police were still looking for Morales, who was charged with five counts of attempted murder stemming from a Bridge Street shooting more than two years ago. At the time, Morales told police he had recently been shot at by members of the Bloods street gang from Lynn.
A year ago, prosecutors dropped the charges after the alleged target of the shooting refused to testify.
While Thursday night's shooting raised the specter of gangs in Salem, police downplayed the level of activity.
"We have some loosely affiliated people, but we don't have that kind of problem," Brennan said.
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