Police: Gunshots fired at apartment window Shell casings found outside building at Winding Wood BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - Police were dispatched to Winding Wood Apartments recently on a report of gunshots being fired at a second-story residence. Two gunshots were fired at the window of an apartment in Building 16 between 3 and 4 a.m.March 26. One resident was inside the unit at the time, but was not injured. The resident was reportedly asleep when the shots were fired. One of the bullets was found lodged in the metal frame of the window; the other bullet pierced through the window glass and ceiling before becoming lodged in a wooden beam in the attic, according to Sayreville Police Detective Jeremy Berry. "One slug was in the metal portion of the window sill and the other one was in the ceiling, past the Sheetrock, near a frame of the second-floor roof," Berry said. Police responding to the scene recovered two 9-millimeter shell casings - one in the grass in front of a parked car outside the building; the other on the asphalt in between that car and another vehicle. "We did recover two brass round casings from a 9-millimeter [gun] and we also recovered bullets," Berry said. Sayreville Police Detective Mathew Bandurski said that, despite the shell casings, police were still investigating whether the gun that was fired in the incident was a handgun. The Sayreville Fire Department assisted Detective Sgt. David Lasko with the process of extracting the bullet from the wooden beamin the attic of the apartment. The residence is the home of a juvenile who may have been involved in an altercation with a group of youths from North Brunswick in recent weeks, according to the police report on the incident. Police are investigating whether there was any link between the alleged altercation and the shots that were fired. "From what I hear it might have been [related to] something prior to this, but further investigation is still pending," Berry said. This was not the first recent incident of gunfire reported at Winding Wood Apartments. Police received a report of gunshots heard in the area of Building 25 at 2:16 p.m. Feb. 2, and at Building 26 at 4 a.m. Dec. 31. Gunshots were also heard in the area of Building 20 at 5 p.m. Dec. 31. The apartment community has been a subject of debate among borough officials in the past year. Mayor Kennedy O'Brien has cited statistics from Police Chief Edward Szkodny indicating that the number of police calls generated by residents of the sprawling apartment complex is not high in comparison to other sections of Sayreville or by the standards of an apartment community like Winding Wood Apartments, which is made up of more than 130 buildings. Some council members have taken a different view, expressing concerns with the severity of the calls made by Winding Wood residents. They cited numerous reports of gunshots and other criminal activities occurring at the apartment complex, which was the scene of a murder in June. O'Brien noted that the shooting death of 20-year-oldMarquisMaing last year involved people from outside the complex, which suggests that the problem was not with Winding Wood itself. Regarding gunshots in general, he said the wooded area that surrounds the apartment community was used by clay pigeon shooters, some of whom were issued violations for firing guns in that area in recent months. Council members like Stanley Drwal have argued that the complex has attracted a criminal element into the borough, and that measures need to be taken to make it safer. Drwal and other have said that the apartment complex owner, Hillside Estates, should provide better security for the residents. Borough BusinessAdministrator Jeffry Bertrand said the apartment complex now has two security employees patrolling together at peak hours, instead of the prior arrangement of two security personnel working separate shifts. Detectives Russell Anderson and Douglas Sprague of the Sayreville Police Department's Major Crimes Bureau are handling the investigation into the recent incident of gunfire. Anyone who has information was asked to callAnderson at (732) 525-5423 or Sprague at (732) 525-5411. Police said the information would remain confidential.