Homeowners in at least one northeast Omaha neighborhood were optimistic Wednesday that a large-scale raid targeting drug and gun offenders will make their streets safer.
Several people interviewed in the area of 40th and Seward Streets, where one violent offender was arrested, said they were grateful for federal and local officers who swooped in early Tuesday to arrest a 27-year-old man charged with gun and drug offenses.
Similar scenes played out across the city in an operation that was seven months in the making. Officials called it one of the city's largest crackdowns on street violence.
Initial numbers showed 12 people arrested on state charges and 14 on federal charges. In all, 55 people have been charged.
Anyone not picked up by the end of Wednesday would be considered a fugitive. Some of those sought were believed to be out of state, and arrangements were being made to pick them up, said Deputy Douglas County Attorney George Thompson.
The raid was carried out by police investigators deputized by U.S. marshals and tapped to work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives along with federal agents.
Thompson said members of at least six Omaha street gangs were arrested.
Two women in the 40th and Seward Streets area said they appreciated police efforts to clean up their neighborhood. Neither wanted to give her name for safety reasons. One said she had stopped telling her family members about problems in the area because she was afraid they would try to talk her into moving away.
The women didn't know that Damon D. Pigee, a neighbor arrested in the raid, had a violent past.
Pigee, 27, had served two prison terms, including a nearly four-year term for first-degree assault and use of a weapon to commit a felony.
Some residents awoke Tuesday to the sound of stun grenades and barking police dogs. Eric Luchsinger said he didn't mind the disruption if it kept his street safe.
"I have two kids," said Luchsinger. "Who's to say, if bullets were fired over there sometime, that one of them wouldn't come into my kid's bedroom?"
Thompson said many of those facing state charges already had pending cases.
Pigee was picked up on a warrant charging him with four counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and one count of possession with intent to deliver marijuana.
As a past felon, he was a candidate for federal charges. But since he has pending charges in state court — he is awaiting trial on a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person — Thompson said his case will continue to be handled in state court.
The two-day sweep marked the public debut of a new elite task force of Omaha police officers and federal agents set up to counter the proliferation of illegal guns. About 70 firearms were seized, as well as about $50,000 worth of illegal drugs.
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