CLAREMONT — Antique store owner Winston Kinney said he has lived nearly 30 years in the city’s West Terrace neighborhood without any concern about crime or safety.

Across the Sugar River from downtown and tucked between North Street and lower Main Street, the neighborhood includes an unassuming mix of aging single-family homes and apartments, St. Joseph Catholic Church and a few business, such as the popular meat wholesaler Liberal Beef.

“It’s always been a quiet neighborhood,” said Kinney. “Nothing has ever happened, and nobody has ever bothered us.”

But the character of the neighborhood has changed in the past year, according to Kinney and other neighbors, and the trouble culminated this week with the shooting of a teenager who interrupted a man breaking into his mother’s car. The shooting has reignited neighbors’ frustrations over a nuisance property that has been a recurring focus of neighborhood complaints, city citations and police investigations, including for alleged drug trafficking.

Residents of the neighborhood said that a shooting incident, or even a spree of car break-ins that preceded it, would have been unimaginable until recently.

“I’ve never had an issue with theft, and I’m surprised that people are stealing (now),” said Bob Allen, who has lived over 20 years on Front Street.

According to a police report, a 17-year-old resident of Front Street — whom police only identified by the initials “B.P.” — was leaving for work at about 4:30 a.m. last Sunday when he saw a man breaking into his mother’s car. The teen confronted the man, which led to an altercation, during which the man drew a .22-caliber revolver and shot the teen in the arm.

The victim was treated for injuries at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. As of Tuesday, he had returned home and was doing fine, according to the teen’s mother, who said this week that the family wanted to maintain their privacy and declined to comment further.

On Sunday, after a brief manhunt aided by a police dog and surveillance cameras in the neighborhood, Claremont Police arrested 24-year-old Jared Strickland, of Claremont, who faces multiple charges, including for first-degree assault with a firearm and for several vehicle robberies last Saturday night and Sunday morning. Strickland was listed as living just across the Sugar River on Central Street near St. Mary Church.

Strickland is currently being held at the Sullivan County jail in Unity. Judge Justin S. Hersh denied his request for bail at an arraignment on Monday in Claremont District Court.

Asked what might have drawn Strickland to the West Terrace neighborhood, Claremont Police Chief Brent Wilmot said this week that it is unclear.

“When you have a densely populated neighborhood with a lot of cars, there is more opportunity (for criminals),” Wilmot said. “All we know is that he came from a different neighborhood.”

Temporary home

According to neighbors, troubles in the area began in 2022, when Desiree Vire and her boyfriend, Jason Hammond moved into a detached wooden garage at 44 Front St., on a quarter-acre lot that includes a two-story home built in 1880. Vire, who could not be reached for an interview, is the daughter of Janice Smith, who acquired the property from her parents last September. According to property records, Smith resides in the home.

In an interview this week, Hammond said that Smith and Vire have a strained relationship, which is why the couple does not live in the house. Hammond and Vire initially lived in the garage, which they remodeled into what Hammond called a “tiny house.” But last September, the city issued an order to vacate the garage — which is not a permitted dwelling in New Hampshire, due in part to its lack of a sanitation system, Chief Building Inspector Leigh Hays said in an interview on Wednesday.

After vacating the garage, the couple acquired a purple Dodge van as their new living quarters, and it sits outside the garage near a driveway.

Several neighbors, including staff at Ready Set Grow, a childcare center on Royce Street that faces the property, said they have seen telltale signs that the property is being used for narcotics transactions.

In an interview on Wednesday, Hammond denied being involved in the drug trade, noting that the police have never found drugs on the property.

Hammond said he was raised in Lebanon but had been living in Washburn, Maine, prior to moving to Claremont. Hammond said he moved from Maine with the mother of his child, but they have since separated.

“I’m just trying to get back to Maine,” Hammond said, adding that he and Vire plan on leaving Claremont in the spring.

Hammond said he has worked in the past as a contractor, with his specialty in carpentry, though he is currently unemployed. He said Vire works as a caterer.

Hammond said that he did not know Strickland, the alleged shooter.

Safety concerns

According to Wilmot, there is an ongoing investigation of possible criminal conduct occurring on Front Street and there have been arrests of people who are connected to the property, including individuals who visited in vehicles, though he declined to discuss further details.

Linda Tremblay, executive director of Ready Set Grow, said that safety concerns first arose last summer when the couple began letting their dogs — a greyhound-pit bull mix and a German Shepherd, according to Hammond — outside.

Wilmot confirmed that police began receiving complaints from residents about the dogs being loose and harassing neighbors. At least one person reported getting bitten.

Hammond said in an interview that neither of his dogs have ever bitten anyone in the neighborhood.

When the couple lived in the garage, their activities stayed behind closed doors, which meant less for the community to see and to worry about, Tremblay noted.

“Once the van came onto the property, that’s when we began seeing the drug activity,” Tremblay said.

Angie Christensen, who lives on Royce Street with her boyfriend, her mother and her two children, said that some residents refer to the garage property as “the crack shack.”

Christensen said that many visitors to the property park their cars on Royce Street, often arriving around 11 p.m. or later and leaving in the morning. Many cars that visit the property have out-of-state license plates, usually Connecticut or Massachusetts, she said.

Christensen, a nurse at Dartmouth Health, said she no longer lets her 9-year-old son go outside alone, even for the short walk to his friend’s house in the neighborhood.

Tremblay said the child care staff monitor 44 Front St., especially when children are on the playground. In some cases, when there are visitors to the property or an unfamiliar car parks nearby, staff will bring the children inside as a precaution.

The child care workers track vehicles that drive down Front Street using their surveillance cameras. Tremblay also said there has been an influx of cars with out-of-state license plates on the street since last year.

Tremblay said that they are in the process of relocating Ready Set Grow to property elsewhere in the city where children and staff will be safer. Much has changed at the child care center since last fall, Tremblay said. Staff used to walk the children to a park off campus, but that activity has ceased. Staff now make a point of leaving the facility in pairs at night.

“I used to stay after hours to work, but I often can’t do that now because it requires at least two of us to stay,” she said.

Tremblay said she and all her teachers carry cans of pepper spray.

Tremblay said last month she filed a no-tresspass order against Hammond and Vire after Vire came onto the property and began yelling at staff outside a classroom window to stop staring at their property.

Farhan Yaqoob, who owns Ready Set Grow, said that the Claremont police have been responsive to the facility’s safety concerns, making periodic patrols of the neighborhood and checking in with the center by phone.

“They do what they can, and they are great officers,” Yaqoob said. “But one person can only handle so much.”

For five months now, Nathan Roberts Sr. and a group of about five other people have been walking the neighborhood at night as part of a neighborhood watch. Roberts, who moved to Claremont four years ago with his wife and daughter, believes they can no longer rely solely on police to intervene. While some in the group carry firearms, Roberts does not.

“We have to take care of our neighbors,” he said. “Cops are overworked and understaffed.”

Roberts, who owns his own roofing and construction business, moved with his family from Connecticut to get away from the types of problems he now faces in his neighborhood. He and his wife do not allow their daughter to walk to school alone.

His work truck has been broken into twice, once about two months ago and a second time about three weeks ago. He no longer parks it at home.

Since the first break-in, he has been sleeping on the couch so he will be able to hear what is going on in the street.

During the second break-in, Roberts saw the man breaking into his truck on cameras he installed outside his home. He went outside to find the man taking things from a truck that belongs to an elderly neighbor who has cancer. Roberts said he stopped the thief and held him there until the police arrived.

Cease and desist

The yard at 44 Front St. is littered with refuse and an array of junk, including spent tires, electrical appliances and soiled mattresses. The occupants erected a wooden fence in the front of the property to provide some privacy, though the debris remains visible from Royce Street.

In November, the city filed a cease-and-desist order in District Court against Smith and Vire, calling for the clean-up of the property as well as removal of the van, which the city said is unregistered and inoperable.

Multiple attempts to reach Smith at her home were unsuccessful.

The city’s nuisance ordinance, which regulates the maintenance of properties for the purpose of protecting health, safety and community well-being, prohibits the storage of junk or dilapidated vehicles on residential properties.

On Wednesday, Hammond said that the van still runs, though the registration needs to be renewed.

Wilmot, who met with residents and child care staff at a Police Commission meeting on Dec. 20, said he understands the frustrations expressed by neighbors about feeling unsafe. Wilmot does not believe the neighborhood has become unsafe, nor do statistics show that crime suddenly worsened or intensified. Rather, neighbors are becoming more aware of activities due to the visibility of the problem on Front Street.

“Once you become aware of the problem, it becomes larger in magnitude,” Wilmot said. “Residents are observing activity in the neighborhood, and all types of behaviors are being noticed.”

In addition to an ongoing police investigation, City Manager Yoshi Manale said the city has filed several actions in court against Janice Smith, such as the order filed in November to clean up the property.

The challenge with nuisance properties is that the process to address them can be slow, Manale said. Cases in the courts are backed up, which results in the city’s filings waiting for a hearing to be scheduled. The city’s last two property cases took up to a year to resolve, he said.

In addition, New Hampshire laws are generally more protective of individual property rights than some states, so the enforcement tools available to municipalities are more limited.

“Which is not a bad thing, as a lot of these rules (in New Hampshire) exist to protect property owners,” Manale said.

Nuisance ordinances are primarily intended to mitigate a problem, not to seize properties or to evict tenants. Manale explained that state law is designed to allow property owners an appropriate amount of time to address the complaints.

It will take time, but the city is not going to give up on these orders, Manale said.

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.