State Police Called In To Investigate Bullet That Struck Wainscott Home

Two construction workers at a home on Merchants Path in Wainscott heard gunshots ring out as they repaired a rear deck on August 5.

The sound of shots was not entirely unusual, since the house sits in the woods not far from the Maidstone Gun Club, but the workers turned toward the sound. Seconds later, the zing of at least one bullet whizzed by the workers and slammed into the home with a loud thwack — both of which can be heard on video captured by a surveillance camera at the house. The bullet appears to have come within 10 feet of them.

The workers ducked for cover and began hollering for the shooting to stop.

New York State Police and East Hampton Town Police are investigating the incident, the home’s owner, Roxana Pentilie, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

The incident is only the latest in a longstanding problem for the homes in her neighborhood, which sits directly down range of the gun club’s rifle range — and residents of the neighborhood and from elsewhere in Wainscott have seized on the shocking incident to rally opposition to the gun club’s lease of 97 acres of East Hampton Airport property being renewed by the town when it expires next year.

The club’s rifle range employs several physical safety features intended to ensure that no bullets could be fired out of the range’s buffered shooting lanes. The shooters are seated at a firing stand with the barrel of their gun aimed through a concrete tube, surrounded by metal enclosure that should prevent the weapon from being aimed anywhere but at the range’s targets.

But since 2004, residents say, a dozen or more bullets have hit homes in the area.

Pentilie said her home has been hit four times in that period. Other neighbors have reported their homes being hit on multiple occasions in 2004 and 2015.

“Merchants Path, that whole entire line [of homes], everybody’s house is in line with the rifle range,” Pentilie said on Tuesday. “A bullet can travel 2½ miles. We are not even a mile away.”

Residents of Wainscott say they have raised alarms about the errant bullets, but do not feel as though local officials have taken their concerns seriously because local police use the gun club for target practice and some town officials are members of the gun club.

They have appealed to the state and State Police have joined the investigation — which was confirmed by Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, who described the video of the incident as “very disturbing.”

Van Scoyoc himself acknowledged that he is a longtime member of the gun club and would recuse himself from any vote on the club’s lease renewal. He did, however, note that it has not been conclusively determined that the bullets that have hit houses in the past came from the gun club’s rifle range and not from people shooting guns illegally — rifles and pistols may not be fired anywhere on Long Island outside of a range — and not from the surrounding woods, where there is ample evidence of gunfire not within the constraints of the gun club.

“It’s under investigation, and I don’t feel comfortable commenting about it other than to say that I don’t know that it’s been determined that the shots originated from the gun club,” he said “People go up in the power lines and shoot all the time because they know they can shoot up there with impunity because people think its from the gun club, even when it’s not from the gun club. You go up there and look at some of the things — old refrigerators and whatever — shot full of rifle holes.”

But at the October 1 meeting of the Wainscott CAC, another Merchants Path resident who asked not to be identified by name, claimed that State Police investigating the August 5 incident have compared the time stamps on the video from Pentilie’s house and video at the gun club itself and determined that the shots that narrowly missed the workers came from an AK-47 that had been illegally modified and was not registered with the state, fired by a Westhampton man at the club. State Police investigators could not be reached to confirm the account.

“It’s a miracle that so far no one has been injured or killed by errant bullets — her video is chilling,” Ellen Corwin, a Merchant’s Path resident said to the Town Board on Tuesday. “I’m absolutely terrified for my granddaughter. We were thinking of putting up a playlet for her in the backyard — we scratched that idea.”

Barry Raebeck, a Wainscott CAC member said that the town’s current lease, which charges the club just $100 per year for the nearly 100 acres, cannot legally be renewed and that the town must bring the lease in line with market value like it has other leased properties on the airport property.

Other CAC members said that the gun club’s apparent lack of monitoring of who is shooting guns at the range and who enters the property is appalling.

“This club is dangerous and does not present any public benefit to the people of East Hampton,” Corwin said.

Others said they simply think the club needs to be relocated because the region around it has been developed with homes in the years since the last lease for the property was inked, 30 years ago.

“Our homes have been hit by bullets, and I still have no objection to gun clubs, but I do have objection to a gun club in such close proximity to residences,” said Lori Weinstine, also a Merchants Path resident. “How can we live with ourselves if the next bullet hits a person walking on a trail or sitting in their home?”