WILKES-BARRE -- A man is dead after a shooting on a street in Wilkes-Barre.
It happened just before 4 a.m. on Friday. Neighbors tell Newswatch 16 they heard multiple gunshots near 62 Willow Street off of Carey Avenue, and called 911.
Family members identified the victim as Don Bachman. He just turned 49 last week. They tell us he kept a close watch on this neighborhood, but police say he was murdered Friday morning, just feet from his front door.
It was just before 4 a.m. when family members say Bachman was getting home from his job as a supervising mechanic at a bus company. Soon after Wilkes-Barre police say neighbors heard gunshots, called 911, and when officers arrived they found the father of three dead just feet from his front door.
It marks the third homicide in Wilkes-Barre in less than two months.
Both loved ones of the victim and neighbors say Bachman kept a close watch on this community, even had surveillance cameras around his home. Relatives say police removed one near his front porch. They are also reviewing the video it captured in hopes it might help catch the killer.
Many around the neighborhood described the victim as friendly.
"It's a shame. It's sad for something like that happen to someone so nice. We walk around all the time, very nice, polite," said neighbor Mandy Powell.
Some people living near the shooting scene say the police were actually in the neighborhood earlier after someone smashed out the windows of another person's vehicle.
"Two cruisers pulled up because someone smashed out the neighbors truck windows. The neighbors came out to try to catch them and they took off," said neighbor Denise Perillo.
Police aren't sure yet if the smashed windows and shooting are connected.
"Lived here for 20 years. It's incredibly horrible now. It's changed. It wasn't this way when I moved here. But now it's every day, there is something going on every day," Perillo said.
"Shooting after shooting, what are we going to do unless we stand up? Who's going to stand up?" asked neighbor Jason Gilyard.
"It's unfortunate. The police department is being as proactive as they can with crime in the city. We just can't predict certain crimes and this is one of them," said Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Robert Hughes.
Even though the victim was known to be outspoken on crime in the neighborhood, police are not commenting on whether the motive for this murder may have been some kind of retaliation.
Officers are still looking for the person who pulled the trigger.
There have been six shootings in Wilkes-Barre since the beginning of April.
