LEWISTON, Maine – A New England city transformed by an influx of refugees and immigrants is now grappling with a youth gun-violence crisis, as police report 35 gun-related incidents this year, 22 involving juveniles.
“I don’t feel safe. I fear for my life,” Mohamed Muhumed, a Lewiston teenager, told Fox News Digital. “I saw someone get punched in the middle of the sidewalk over there. It’s crazy.”
The city, Maine’s second most populous city and home to a large population of refugees from Somali and other African nations, is experiencing a serious youth gun violence problem. Lewiston Police Chief Carly Conley called the gun violence “one of the most serious public safety challenges” facing the city.
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Jon Fetherston, a reporter for the conservative-leaning The Maine Wire who has reported extensively on the issue, told Fox News Digital that “the gun violence in Lewiston is very concerning. The majority… has been committed by teenagers… Multiple times teenagers have been arrested and immediately released by the courts back out on the streets.”
“The court systems are being tapped. The DA is frustrated that the courts aren’t putting these kids away in jail… Residents are scared. Residents are very, very frustrated, and you’ve got kids shooting kids, and it’s almost become commonplace here in Lewiston,” Fetherston said.
City officials have responded by approving $200,000 in additional police overtime funding to expand patrols and enforcement. They have also urged changes to Maine’s juvenile justice system, including more options for handling repeat violent offenders and greater scrutiny before high-risk juveniles are released.
Mayor Carl Sheline said in a statement last month that the increased resources are “sending a strong message to those perpetrating gun violence: we will find you.”
But he added, “Parental involvement and accountability are key to reducing youth gun violence in our city.”
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Republican Rick LaChapelle, a former city council president who is now running for mayor, told Fox News Digital, “Our biggest problem is the system itself. The police department is doing an excellent job catching these people. We have one young man that’s been arrested 5 times, I believe, for the same thing. He gets arrested, gets brought down to the youth center… gets released.”
“It’s been a one-party rule forever that has instilled the rules that there’s no accountability,” LaChapelle argued. “We need to change the rules of the system.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sheline to discuss his efforts on combating the gun violence, but the mayor didn’t respond by the time this story was published.
No official city or police data indicates that Somali residents as a group are behind the violence, or establishes a connection to the increase. But LaChapelle said, “That seems to be who’s being arrested right now.”
Mohamed Adbei, a teenager who spoke with Fox News Digital on the streets of Lewiston, pushed back on any ethnic connection: “I wouldn’t just say it’s the Somali kids. It’s youth in general.”
Ifraax Saciid, a Somali native who lived in Atlanta before moving to Lewiston, agreed.
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“No, that’s not the root cause. I think the root cause is poverty here in Lewiston. Lewiston is very poor and is economically not in a good state,” she said when asked if there was a direct connection to the Somali community. “I think what’s happening here is happening everywhere. It’s happening in Atlanta. I have lived in Miami and Ohio and Kentucky and Minnesota and have seen what is happening in those states also happening here in Lewiston. It’s nothing new.”
Lewiston has also been an epicenter in recent years for fraud scandals involving Maine’s joint federal and state Medicaid program.
Saciid emphasized that “fraud is happening everywhere in the United States and with every skin color, with every class. It’s not tied particularly to one people.”
The Somali influx to Lewiston began a quarter century ago, when refugees and secondary migrants started relocating to the former mill city along the Androscoggin River in search of safe neighborhoods and affordable housing.
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Then-Mayor Larry Raymond drew national attention in 2002 after asking Somali leaders to discourage additional migration to Lewiston, arguing the rapid influx was straining city resources.
Fast-forward to present day and Lewiston has one of the highest per capita Muslim populations in the country, most of it Somali along with refugees from other African nations.
Fetherston argued that “history has proven him [Raymond] to be correct that… that it was too much too fast because a lot has changed in Lewiston. And things are not working out in Lewiston.”
LaChapelle noted, “I’m a French Canadian, so my ancestors came here…. We need legal immigration in America. We need to grow.”
But he added, “We just have to do it logically and legally and in. When my ancestors got here, there wasn’t a free… gravy train all the way down. Now we’re supporting everybody. We have for 30 years, we still have some people that are still on the welfare system 30 years later. That has to change.”