Police in Portland and Westbrook remained tight-lipped Monday about a pair of drive-by shootings that occurred within half an hour of each other early Sunday.

Both Lt. James Sweatt of Portland and Capt. Michael Nugent of Westbrook said they still don’t know whether the incidents are related but the two departments are working together in their investigations.

No one was injured in either shooting.

Police were called to a home on Bridgton Road in Westbrook about 4:30 a.m. Sunday after someone “fired a number of rounds at the residence before fleeing in a vehicle,” Nugent said in a news release.

He declined to say whether anyone was home during the shooting or provide any other details.

No one answered the door at the Westbrook residence Monday. According to the city, the house is owned by Melissa and John DiSanto.

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The second shooting took place a short time later on Birchvale Drive in Portland, which is just over 4 miles away from the home on Bridgton Road.

Foos Ali, who owns the Birchvale Drive home and lives there with her three adult children, her brother, her uncle and her mother, said she awoke to loud bangs about 4:45 a.m. Sunday.

She said she didn’t know what the noise was but thought it might have been a heating system failure. She checked in with other family members in the house to make sure they were OK and then went back to sleep.

It wasn’t until about 8 a.m., when her brother was leaving the house to get coffee, that they noticed damage to Ali’s vehicle – two shattered windows and a bullet-sized hole in another.

Sweatt said he couldn’t release any further details about the incident but did say police seized the car to gather evidence.

Ali, who immigrated to Maine 19 years ago from Somalia and has lived on Birchvale Drive for about a year, said she doesn’t know how something like this could have happened. She said she doesn’t know anyone who would want to do her or her family members any harm.

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Ali runs a halal market on Bridgton Road in Westbrook, which, coincidentally, is located about a mile from the other shooting.

She said she lived for many years in Riverton Park, a subsidized housing development off outer Forest Avenue, where she said a random shooting would not have been as shocking.

“But this is a nice, quiet neighborhood,” she said of the area off Brighton Avenue not far from Hall Elementary School.

Now, she said she’s scared enough to price security systems for her home.

Portland police released a statement about the Birchvale Drive shooting Monday afternoon but it provided no new information. It did stress that anyone who may have information or witnessed the incident to call the department at 874-8584 or by texting the word “GOTCHA” and a message to 274637. Westbrook police also said anyone who has information about the Bridgton Road shooting can call 854-2531, extension 2414, or anonymously at 591-8117.


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