By John Anderson 9/22/2021
A 911 call for a fight at the Best Inn on State Route 417 in Wellsville turned into a multi-agency investigation with several arrests around 8:30 a.m. Monday.
State Police told the Wellsville Sun they will have more detail tonight, and that the incident involved a fight, drugs and the village police had a suspect wanted for a stolen vehicle.
There were state police vehicles at the Best Inn, and the suspects were caught at an apartment on North Main Street, as six state police cars and four village of Wellsville police cars were on Main Street to detain and question suspects.
Wellsville Police Chief Tim O’Grady confirmed the incident and the stolen vehicle report.
“The incident this morning was a problem at the Best Inn, which is just outside of the village of Wellsville,” O’Grady said. “The call came in as a disturbance and fight. The suspects from that ended up above Hamar’s Pub in an apartment (19 1/2 North Main) and we assisted the state police in the apprehension of those individuals. One of the individuals from this morning’s incident, we have charges on from a car theft that occurred on Wednesday.”
The same names appeared in front of officers once again. Some of the suspects are from out of the area. Under the current bail reform laws in New York State, judges and prosecutors are limited who they can put in jail. Police keep making arrests. O’Grady calls it a revolving door.
“We are seeing the same people over and over and over again. We are very limited on what someone can be put in jail for right now. They know that. They go out and commit crimes. We give them their tickets, and they go out and commit more crimes and they receive more tickets. It’s just a huge revolving door,” O’Grady said.
Wellsville Police have investigated crimes that took place in other counties and towns as the suspects wind up in the village or commit an additional crime in Wellsville and go to another town. The repeat offenders have kept the local police force busy.
“There are certainly crimes that occur around the clock that the public doesn’t know about and again, those crimes are coming back to the same handful of individuals.,” O’Grady said. “And it’s frustrating for the officers to deal with the same people over the same circumstances.
“We see an influx of people coming from outside the Wellsville area dealing illegal drugs and setting up shop outside the Wellsville area and they know if they get caught, there is little that can be done to them under the current judicial system,” O’Grady added.
