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Dereck Carattini, 20, was arrested and charged following the Friday, March 3, shooting, Holyoke officials said. But investigators said the bust was thanks to a piece of technology that's becoming a valuable tool for police departments.
ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection network that uses sound-surveillance devices to pinpoint the area where a gun was fired, alerted Holyoke police officers to two potential shots at 650 Dwight Street and 195 Oak Street around 1:30 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
Police rushed to Oak Street moments after the alert and saw a running car parked with its lights on. When they spoke with the driver, the officer saw a black untraceable ghost gun with a flashlight attached to it inside the vehicle, Holyoke police said. They also found two spent bullet casings.
A few hours later, a woman called police after she found a bullet hole in a bedroom window of her Oak Street home. She had heard the glass break but thought it was a bottle shattering outside.
Carattini is charged with —
- Possession of a firearm without an FID card
- Discharging a gun within 500 feet of a building
- Possession of ammo without an FID card
- Improper storage of a firearm
- Destruction of property
While ShotSpotter technology has its detractors, Holyoke police said in a Facebook post that it was vital in this arrest as no one called to report hearing gunshots.
"If not for ShotSpotter, the Holyoke Police Department would not have been notified, and a violent person would not be off the streets of Holyoke," the post said.
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