The following is an incident my wife and I felt you should all be aware of.  A shooting incident occurred involving our hay bale wall protest regarding the Trap & Skeet Range sometime July 4^th evening or early July 5^th morning on our property located along Howie Carpluk Memorial Road in Yaphank.
On the way to work on the morning of 7/5, we noticed one of the protest signs included in our hay bale sound wall protest appeared to be shot at. Close up it was very obvious that someone had indeed shot the sign, and we also noticed that the gun blasts carried through our backyard fencing material. We immediately called for the police and a report was filed. The officer confirmed that the 2-3 holes in the sign were from a shotgun. Luckily no one was hurt and we’re glad that our dogs were in the house. We just did an interview with a detective, and he is working on our case thankfully.

Our concerns continue to date. On Sunday, 7/15/07, at approx. 5:45PM a white SUV pulled over, a young guy got out and started kicking our signs down and yelling obscenities at us. Monday morning, 7/16/07, at approximately 12:30AM, 2 people were observed by a neighbor going through and dumping our garbage can all over the street and leaving in a dark colored pickup. We have recorded both events with COPE and have to wonder what they may be looking for. The community has documented a very long list of incidents that seemingly coincide shortly after any form of protesting or public speaking against the gun range. This list includes the harassment of two members of our youth committee (two eleven year old children) after they spoke in front of our town board and county parks committee about their concerns about the gun range.

We now ask those decision makers who voted in favor of re-opening this dangerously unhealthy gun range, is this what you had in mind for residents and children in a once growing neighborhood. Brian, when we asked you about Yaphank before purchasing our dream home, as a friend and  volunteers for you of  8 plus years, could you have envisioned what has now happened to us? That we would be forced to live with the challenge of trying to live our lives as normal as we can considering the unhealthy circumstances and constant worry that our active protesting of the now re-opened gun range could become dangerous?

We are very concerned and hope that you also are,