Despite crime, city puts dent in gangs

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - This summer has seen a string of violence in the Queen City. So what are law enforcers doing to fight back?

Buffalo Police identify the victim of Thursday evening's fatal shooting as 28-year-old city resident, Quincy Balance. News 4 has discovered Balance was arrested in May, for a shooting on Oakmont Avenue. The barrage of shells that killed Balance, may have been fired in retaliation.

The victim's aunt told News 4, "They had it out for him. In other words, he came over here, and got set up."

Balance's aunt said her nephew was lured to Stevens Avenue by two people riding with him in the Chevy Blazer.

It's been a violent summer, beginning with the shootings of 11 people in less than a week, back in May. The FBI has taken notice, putting together a "Safe Streets" task force, with a special focus on gang violence.

FBI Asst. Special Agent-in-Charge Steven Lanser said, "Our law enforcement activities take care of [cleaning up] some of [the gang problems], but we know that the impact is driven by other things, such as broken families in the area, the upbringing."

Agents are trying to reach school-age children before the gang recruiters do.

"Buffalo's no different than other cities this size. We're mostly affected by neighborhood gangs. We haven't seen a lot of activity from the big national gangs, but we have a lot of neighborhood-based gangs in Buffalo," Lanser said.

The task force tracks every shooting in the city, to determine how many are gang-related.

"We can usually determine [that], on each shooting. We work closely with the Erie County Crime Analysis Center," Lanser explained.

That analysis, according to Lanser, shows Buffalo is "putting a dent" in its gang problem.