SAUGERTIES, NY — Gunshots rang out at a party Friday at an Airbnb short-term rental property on Fish Creek Road, police said Monday.
“There is a problem with short-term rentals,” Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said Monday, blaming the incident and others like it in the city on “missing landlords.”
According to police, at around 11:10 p.m. on Friday, December 16, they responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired at 77 Fish Creek Road in the city.
About 40 people were celebrating inside the residence when gunshots were heard in the front yard of the property, police said. This caused most individuals to flee the residence, police said.
Detectives found nine spent shell casings on the street outside the residence, police said. Additionally, a 2014 Chrysler 200 driven by one of the party attendees suffered three bullet holes as a result of the incident.
A bullet that entered through the vehicle’s headlight was recovered from the car’s engine compartment, police said.
No injuries were reported.
Sinagra said the participants came from Kingston, Newburgh, Beacon and Poughkeepsie and were between the ages of 15 and 24. Most were uncooperative with police, but Sinagra said police used interviews with some revelers, a police department license plate reader and IDs left behind in a ‘crazy dash’ to leave the residence to determine who was there Friday night.
Police said other people fled the scene in vehicles when officers from Saugerties Police, State Police and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office arrived.
A vehicle carrying individuals believed to have fled the scene was stopped by State Police in Ulster at around 11:40 p.m., State Police said in a press release on Monday. Using information provided by Saugerties police, state police arrested and arrested 20-year-old Zaccai J. Curtis of Poughkeepsie at a local Speedway gas station. Curtis was a passenger in a 2012 Lincoln-MKX driven by a 19-year-old Poughkeepsie resident who was not arrested.
Curtis was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, one count of alleged possession of an ammunition magazine and another of alleged possession of a loaded firearm.
The handgun in the car was not the weapon that was fired at the scene, state and local police said.
Curtis was arraigned in Saugerties City Court and sent to Ulster County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, $100,000 bond, $150 partially guaranteed bond. $000.
The address of the incident is advertised online as AirBNB and the property is owned by Just Divine Homes LLC, of 25 Railroad Ave., Glen Gardens, NJ Sinagra said that although the residence is registered as a rental short term with county officials, she is not registered properly in Saugerties.
The police investigation is continuing and anyone with information about the shooting can contact detectives at (845) 246-9800.
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