Thread: Gunfight in New Hampshire- illegal immigrant arrested

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx ... 2ba5037739

Man held after Manchester gunfire
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
11 hours, 17 minutes ago

Manchester – One man was taken into custody but no one was hurt after gunfire broke out during a dispute inside a Belmont Street apartment yesterday afternoon.


Edilberto Soto, 24, of 416 Belmont St., is accused of firing a stolen handgun inside a second-floor apartment and disposing of it outside, police said. He faces felony charges of reckless conduct, falsifying physical evidence and receiving stolen property.

Police said last night they determined Soto was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Federal authorities have lodged a detainer for him, said Lt. Jim Stankiewicz.


Police emerge from an alley after searching the building where a shooting occurred yesterday afternoon in Manchester. (BOB LAPREE)
Shortly after a 911 emergency caller reported hearing gunshots at 414-416 Belmont St. at about 12:15 p.m., more than a dozen police officers sealed off the block at the juncture of Massabesic and Cedar streets.

Police in body armor with bullet-proof shields combed through the three-story stucco building, kicking in doors to two apartments and evacuating about eight residents.

They found shell casings inside the front, second-floor apartment, but no one inside, said Deputy Chief Glenn Leidemer.

Police later discovered Soto attempting to hide himself in the brush behind the building. He was arrested after police questioned him and located and interviewed several others who were present during the shooting, police said.


Edilberto Soto, left, stands by as officers search trash cans and an alley at the building where a shooting took place yesterday afternoon in Manchester. (BOB LAPREE)
The shooting stemmed from a dispute between residents of the apartment and several acquaintances, police said. Police allege the Soto was pointing the gun at someone and it went off at least twice during the argument. The gun was a silver .380 semi automatic pistol that was taken in a 1999 burglary, police said.

Terrified customers who rushed from one of the building’s storefront shops to safety across the street said they heard three “bangs” at about 12:15 p.m.

Dozens of people watched from sidewalks, steps and windows as police stood guard on street corners while officers in body armor and shields dashed through alleys, across streets and beneath windows.

After clearing the building and locating Soto, police allowed residents back into the area at about 1:45 p.m.

Soto is being held at Valley Street jail.

Staff Reporter Riley Yates contributed to this report.

Here's another illegal immigrant who "wants to be an American citizen and he's just here to work."

YEAH RIGHT.

Just what we need.....millions more good hardworking people like this. :P

NEW HAMPSHIRE!
Shoot, I mentioned this last month......they've flowed into one of the most peaceful, sweet states and the trouble's just beginning.

I'm just sick!! sick - sick - sick

Yessirree.....try to DISARM law abiding, upstanding Americans but keep letting this trash flow into our beautiful country with weapons bringing their culture of violence with them.

He was probably upset because he went to a MacDonalds where everybody spoke english???

Mountaindog:

Or because the billboard wasn't in Spanish!!

NorthJersey.com
Mayor decries Spanish billboard
Friday, July 7, 2006

By BRIAN ABERBACK
STAFF WRITER

A Spanish-language billboard promoting iced coffee is getting a chilly reception from some Bogota officials.

Mayor Steve Lonegan said the McDonald's billboard on River Road near Elm Avenue and the railroad overpass is offensive because it sends the message that Spanish speakers and immigrants do not need to learn how to speak English.

"English is the language that binds us as a community and as a country," Lonegan said Thursday. "This billboard says, 'You Hispanics can't learn English, so we're going to put up this sign.' It's really sending the wrong message."

Lonegan said he spoke Thursday with a representative from the Fairfield office of billboard company CBS Outdoor and was told that it would be taken down. But an executive at its New York offices said the company will do no such thing.

"It's not coming down," said Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing for CBS Outdoor. "The advertising is credible, appropriate and in good taste. McDonald's clearly has the right to target the consumer in that way."

McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some residents disagreed with Lonegan's stance.

"There's a large population of Spanish people in Bogota and [neighboring town] Ridgefield Park," said Bogota resident Leslie Merse as she stood in the parking lot of Classic Laundrette, a few hundred feet from the billboard. "Why shouldn't they have a Spanish billboard?"

The billboard promotes McDonald's new iced coffee drink against a royal and navy blue background. The text reads: "Un frente helado se aproxima. Nuevo cafe helado." English translation: "A cold front is coming. A new iced coffee."

The sign also lists the coffee's flavors -- vanilla, avallana (hazelnut), regular -- and features the fast-food chain's trademark catch-phrase, "Me encanta (I'm loving it)."

According to the 2000 census, 21 percent of Bogota's 8,249 residents are of Hispanic ethnicity. Hispanics make up 48 percent of the middle-class suburb's 1,144-student school district, according to state statistics for the 2005-06 school year.

Bogota Borough Council President George Shalhoub said he understands why McDonald's would target Bogota for the billboard, but agrees with Lonegan that it should be taken down.

"This doesn't help people," Shalhoub said. "It helps McDonald's sell more coffee, but it doesn't help people who live in this country and need to learn English."

Shalhoub, who also speaks Italian and some Japanese, said he is not opposed to learning other languages. "I learned Japanese because I spent a lot of time in Japan for business," he said. "If I wanted to get around, I had to learn the language."

He said the same standard should apply in America.

Carmen Morales, a member of "You Don't Speak for Me," a fledgling organization that opposes illegal immigration, applauded Lonegan's stance.

"I believe that McDonald's should be ashamed of themselves, assuming that Hispanics don't speak English," Morales wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "I feel this is an insult to the Hispanic community. We the Hispanics know what a "Big Mac" is and we certainly CAN read English."

Others disagree.

Bogota Councilman George Silos said Lonegan's request to remove the billboard is an attack on free speech.

"The more I think about it, the more ridiculous and bigoted it sounds to me," Silos said. "I don't care what language it's in. It infringes on First Amendment rights."

Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said she could not recall any similar situation brought before her. She said Lonegan's action, if taken in his official capacity as mayor, could be a violation of law.

"If the mayor is attempting to use the authority of his position to persuade the company to take [the billboard] down," Jacobs said, "that's an abuse of authority and potentially a violation of free speech."

Lonegan said he is not racist and would demand that the billboard be removed if it was in Italian, German or any language other than English.

"My First Amendment issue is to come out against it," Lonegan said.

Hispanic leaders said Lonegan is overreacting in thinking that foreign-language billboards send the message that immigrants do not need to learn English.

Clara Nibot said English should be America's main language, but she does not believe that foreign-language billboards are at odds with that stance.

"It has nothing to do with demanding that English be secondary," said Nibot, president of the Bergen County Hispanic Republican Organization.

"It's a marketing strategy. I don't think there's any harm in that."

"Latinos want to learn English," said Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, an umbrella group of most of the state's Hispanic organizations. "That's the way they are going to move ahead in this country.

"The reality is we live in a society that's multilingual, and that's an asset for the country," Perez said.

"We have to celebrate our diversity instead of fighting it."

Bogota by the numbers

# Total population: 8,249

# White: 6,246, 75.7 percent

# Hispanic: 1,759, 21.3 percent*

# Black: 473, 5.7 percent

# Asian: 639, 7.7 percent

*Hispanics may also be classified as other races.

Source: 2000 Census