Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — Police detectives on foot canvassed the North End section of the city Tuesday searching for surveillance camera recordings that may have captured a man who, hours earlier, discharged a gun several times in the area of Wyoming and Beaumont streets.
An off-duty police commander, Joseph Coffay, was in the area and confronted the gunman after hearing the first of a series of shots at about 8:30 p.m., a law enforcement source said.
When Coffay confronted the gunman, more shots were fired, said the source who took part in the massive search afterward.
No injuries were reported.
The source told the Times Leader at least four shotgun shell casings were found on Wyoming Street near Beaumont Street.
That conflicts with what has been reported elsewhere. In an interview with another area media outlet Tuesday, Coffay was reported as saying the man fired a semi-automatic handgun, not a shotgun.
A Times Leader voice message left for Coffay at his office Tuesday was not immediately returned.
As of Tuesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the incident, Wilkes-Barre police had not formally released any information about the incident through official channels, including the department’s Facebook page.
An officer working the information desk at police headquarters Tuesday afternoon said the only thing he could say was the incident was still in the hands of detectives.
The search
City police along with state police at Wyoming and police in Kingston, Hanover Township and Wilkes-Barre Township converged on the area between North Main Street to Wilkes-Barre Boulevard and Scott Street to Conyngham Avenue searching for the gunman who was able to elude capture.
Several occupied and vacant houses were searched, including sheds, garages and parked vehicles, the source said.
Police canine units were also called in to assist.
Detectives Tuesday were walking the neighborhood looking for surveillance cameras on houses and businesses.
It is the second shooting in the same neighborhood within nine days.
Police said a house in the 500 block of North Washington Street was struck by rounds when witnesses claimed occupants of two vehicles exchanged gunfire April 7. No injuries were reported in that shooting.
The shooting on North Washington is two blocks from where Monday night’s incident occurred.