Suzanne Rozdeba Dereese Huff with shooting victim David Cruz

State Senator Daniel Squadron will visit the scene ofMonday morning’s shooting in Campos Plaza to rally for an emergency session in Albany addressing gun violence. At the same time, a Campos resident is circulating a petition demanding security upgrades to the complex and refusing to pay rent until they’re made.

Senator Squadron’s press conference tomorrow will follow an op-ed he penned for today’s Daily News, calling for the passage of a package of bills that “would ensure that New York State has the nation’s strongest gun laws.” The series of “common-sense measures” he advocates includes microstamping shell casings, broadening the definition of “assault weapon,” and limiting the number of guns that one person can purchase in a month.

As Senator Squadron implores state lawmakers, Dereese Huff, president of the Campos Plaza Tenant Association, is appealing to her neighbors via a petition titled “We Must Take a Stand They are Killing our Children with Drugs and Bullets.”

“I put it under everybody’s doors,” she told The Local. “I already got 60 returned to me, signed. They’re signing this petition because they feel that they’re not getting help from N.Y.P.D. nor N.Y.C.H.A. They have to step up on their jobs.”

The petition, reprinted below, follows a recent survey conducted in part by Senator Squadron’s office in airing tenants’ ongoing complaints about the police department and the New York City Housing Authority, including lack of public-housing safety, unsanitary conditions, robberies, and the elderly being afraid to leave their apartments. “Think of your children Think of your parents Think of your friends that come to visit Think of your neighbors!!” the petition reads. “Think of the many lives you can save including the perpetrators that destroy the development they live in.”

Ms. Huff, a Campos resident, said she is refusing to pay rent until greater measures are taken to protect residents. “When N.Y.C.H.A. and N.Y.P.D. can clean this place up to where it needs to be, that’s when they can take my rent out of my escrow account,” she said.

Ms. Huff also said that David Cruz, the victim of Monday’s shooting, heard from the police again yesterday. “They picked up David yesterday, a lieutenant and two other detectives. They apologized to him, after he went off on them. They do know he was a victim,” she said.