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Cunard-Gore Park neighbor requests lighting to help stop illegal activity
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BATON ROUGE — At Cunard-Gore Park, there's a playground, a walking path, and a basketball court. The updates came in 2018 after Tamara Coleman and her community pointed out the glaring issues and blight in a WBRZ report. One thing it still doesn't have - lights.
"There were seven gunshots last night," Coleman said.
The sound of gunshots wakes Coleman up at night. She says they're constant and come from the park. That's why she is calling on BREC to make security improvements.
"Random people like to use this park because it's so pitch black, it's so dark they feel comfortable using our park," Coleman said.
Baton Rouge Police have responded to the area around the park 11 times this year. The calls are for shots fired, public assists, and one for a stolen vehicle recovery.
"I've called probably 20 times, I know I've called and sometimes I feel guilty calling them," she said.
Other times, like last night, she doesn't call. Coleman says the gunshots are that common.
In September 2007, police found the bodies of two men, Kenneth Thirston and Edward Schenk, shot to death at the park. It's what motivated Coleman to start asking for change in her neighborhood.
"The park was even, back then, so dark it made them comfortable enough to do that," she said.
Coleman is asking BREC to install lights. She voted for the two tax renewals on the Nov. 5 ballot and it's how she wants to see her tax dollars put to use.
The park system, which has more than 150 parks, says most of its locations don't have lights because the parks must close at dark per City-Parish ordinance. BREC encourages Coleman to continue calling the police when she hears or sees illegal activity at the park. Coleman says it's not just the responsibility of the police.
"If we had to call them every time that we hear gunshots down here we would need our own personal direct line," she said.
BREC says it will continue to work with Coleman about her security concerns.
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