Medford, Ore.– The sound of gun shots wakes a Medford neighborhood this morning, but it turns out, police now say no shots were fired at all the noises were instead large rocks thrown at a car.
“It woke me up,” says Lorraine Machen, a resident of three months.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” says Beth Walls, another resident. “This is like the third time since I’ve lived here.”
Residents on edge and frustrated after they thought someone fired shots at pine terrace town homes on the 1800 block of Crater Lake Avenue in Medford.
“The cops are called at least everyday,” says Walls.
Police later revealed was someone throwing large rocks at a car during what they’re calling a drug disturbance. Several people were arrested on drug related warrants.
“There is domestic violence almost everyday,” Walls says. “They will just hand off their drugs and money right in front of everybody. It’s a regular thing for kids to find needles.”
The dangerous activity doesn’t go unnoticed by the property manager Jeff Delong.
“Drug use. Heroin and Meth. The last 2-3 years it’s just been an epidemic.”
Delong says while he works hard to vet residents before they move in, the issue is complex.
“We cant screen their family and their friends,” he explains. “The tenants themselves are not the problem that I am experiencing, it is who they are letting in their units.”
Delong says he is working to evict residents who he believes are the source of the neighborhood trouble, but residents are growing impatient.
“Most of the people who live here are intimidated,” says Wall.
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