CITY OF NEWBURGH — A 21-year-old City of Newburgh man was wounded by gunfire about 11 p.m. Wednesday near Renwick and William streets, city police said.



It marked the fourth shooting, with five victims, reported in Newburgh in less than three weeks, the second in nine days.



The victim in Wednesday's shooting, Romeo Herring, was listed in stable condition Thursday after he was shot in the abdomen and leg, police said.



City police’s ShotSpotter equipment reported two gunshots in the area at the time of the incident, according to a news release from police.



Herring was taken to St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in a private vehicle and would not cooperate with investigators, police said. The incident is being handled by city police's Non-Fatal Shooting Task Force.



Darius Lee, a 23-year-old city resident, was injured by gunfire exactly two weeks ago near the intersection of Benkard Avenue and William Street, a block away from where Wednesday's shooting happened.



City Det. Lt. Joseph Burns said on Thursday that police have received little-to-no cooperation from gunshot victims in the four recent shootings and have not made any arrests.



"It seems to be that the victims of these shootings know who the suspects are, and the suspects know who they're shooting," Burns said.



The police department is using programs such as Gun-Involved Violence Elimination, or GIVE, and Group Violence Intervention to get a handle on the spike in gun violence.



"Crime in the City of Newburgh is committed by less than 1 percent of the population, so it's very small groups of people, and we're seeing that now," Burns said. "Throughout the shootings in the last few weeks, these are small groups that are kind of warring with one another and that's just historically what it's been in Newburgh over the past year."



There have been 17 bullet-to-body shootings this year, Burns said, representing a disconcerting increase since 2018, when there were eight. But it is still a far-cry from the 55 bullet-to-body shootings recorded in 2015.



"Once we started instituting these programs, you saw a huge drop," Burns said.



Michele McKeon, chief operating officer for the Regional Economic Community Action Program, expects to learn a definite timeline for implementing Newburgh's SNUG program when RECAP speaks with the statewide initiative Friday. The SNUG program uses street-level intervention to mediate disputes between feuding groups in the city.



The program will be administered by RECAP through a contract with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Funding for the program was announced by state Sen. James Skoufis in April.



A $5,000 reward is still available from city police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the homicide Sept. 21 near Liberty and Clinton streets, when a stray bullet killed 35-year-old Amed Alberto Alvarado-Baquedano.



Anyone with information about any of the recent shootings can call City of Newburgh police at 845-561-3131.



lbellamy@th-record.com