LEWISTON, Maine – A New England city reshaped by decades of refugee and immigrant arrivals is confronting a surge in youth gun violence. Police say 35 gun-related incidents have been reported this year, including 22 involving juveniles.
“I don’t feel safe. I fear for my life,” Mohamed Muhumed, a Lewiston teenager, told Fox News Digital. “I saw someone get punched in the middle of the sidewalk over there. It’s crazy.”
Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city and home to a substantial Somali and broader African refugee population, is facing what officials describe as a serious youth gun-violence problem. Police Chief Carly Conley has called the violence “one of the most serious public safety challenges” confronting the community.
Jon Fetherston, a reporter for the conservative-leaning Maine Wire who has closely followed the issue, told Fox News Digital that the pattern is deeply troubling. He said teenagers account for much of the reported violence and that some young suspects have been arrested and quickly released by the courts.
“The court systems are being tapped. The DA is frustrated that the courts aren’t putting these kids away in jail,” Fetherston said. “Residents are scared. Residents are very, very frustrated, and you’ve got kids shooting kids. It’s almost become commonplace here in Lewiston.”
In response, city officials approved an additional $200,000 for police overtime, allowing the department to increase patrols and enforcement. They have also called for changes to Maine’s juvenile justice system, including more ways to address repeat violent offenders and stricter review before high-risk juveniles are released.
Mayor Carl Sheline said in a statement last month that the added resources were “sending a strong message to those perpetrating gun violence: we will find you.”
At the same time, Sheline said parental involvement and accountability would be essential to curbing youth gun violence in Lewiston.
Republican Rick LaChapelle, a former city council president who is running for mayor, said the central problem lies with the system rather than the police department. He said officers have done “an excellent job” making arrests, but questioned what happens afterward.
“We have one young man that’s been arrested five times, I believe, for the same thing. He gets arrested, gets brought down to the youth center … gets released,” LaChapelle told Fox News Digital.
LaChapelle argued that decades of one-party rule had produced a system with too little accountability. “We need to change the rules of the system,” he said.
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Fox News Digital contacted Sheline for comment about his efforts to address the violence, but the mayor had not responded by the time the story was published.
There is no official city or police data showing that Somali residents as a group are responsible for the violence or establishing a connection between the community and the increase in shootings. LaChapelle nevertheless said, “That seems to be who’s being arrested right now.”
Mohamed Adbei, a Lewiston teenager who spoke with Fox News Digital, rejected the idea that the problem should be linked to one ethnic group. “I wouldn’t just say it’s the Somali kids. It’s youth in general,” he said.
Ifraax Saciid, a Somali native who previously lived in Atlanta before moving to Lewiston, expressed a similar view.
“No, that’s not the root cause. I think the root cause is poverty here in Lewiston,” Saciid said when asked whether the violence was directly connected to the Somali community. “Lewiston is very poor and is economically not in a good state.”
Saciid said the issues facing Lewiston were not unique to the city, noting that she had witnessed similar problems while living in Miami, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota and Atlanta. “It’s nothing new,” she said.
Lewiston has also emerged in recent years as a focal point for fraud scandals involving Maine’s joint federal-state Medicaid program.
Saciid stressed that fraud cuts across racial and economic lines. “Fraud is happening everywhere in the United States and with every skin color, with every class. It’s not tied particularly to one people,” she said.
The Somali migration to Lewiston began roughly 25 years ago, when refugees and secondary migrants started settling in the former mill city along the Androscoggin River. Many were drawn by its affordable housing and reputation for safe neighborhoods.
In 2002, then-Mayor Larry Raymond attracted national attention after asking Somali leaders to discourage further migration, saying the rapid population increase was placing pressure on city resources.
Today, Lewiston has one of the nation’s highest Muslim populations per capita. Most residents in that community are Somali, alongside refugees from other African countries.
But he added, “We just have to do it logically and legally and in. When my ancestors got here, there wasn’t a free… gravy train all the way down. Now we’re supporting everybody. We have for 30 years, we still have some people that are still on the welfare system 30 years later. That has to change.”