Rose said having two shootings in the township within two months is alarming and the department is working with Crossing Place Apartments to make the complex as secure as possible. The first shooting occurred in early December.

“We stepped up enforcement and patrol in that area since the last shooting (and) East Lansing (police) has as well,” he said. “We’re working with management to increase the security.”
Rose could not specify the changes discussed at this time.

Corky Gatewood, vice president of marketing and professional development of Ambling Management, the company that owns Crossing Place Apartments, was unavailable for comment Monday.

Many residents, such as third-year law student Chase Stoecker, have expressed feelings of concern for their personal safety.

Stoecker said he has not been staying at his apartment during weekends and instead has been going to his family’s home in Brighton, Mich.

“You shouldn’t have to live here and be scared,” Stoecker said. “The management’s inability to handle the situations they have created and the amount of violence is unbelievable.”

Stoecker said he has seen fights going on in the complex’s parking lot and the police are called out regularly.

Bath Township Manager Troy Feltman said the two shootings are a cause for concern, but beyond that, Crossing Place Apartments has not generated more police response than is to be expected from a student housing complex.

Feltman said the Bath Township police has reached out to the complex to make changes to security, but so far nothing has resulted.

Feltman said the township will continue to help make improvements in whatever ways possible — such as developing better resident screening procedures — but much of the responsibility is solely on the complex and its residents.

“Public safety is our No. 1 priority,” he said. “When some thing like this happens it becomes more paramount that public safety needs to be our priority. That being said, the shootings did take place on private property so there is only so much we could do.”

The only way the residents officially were notified of the event was through a printed statement posted on their doors, Stoecker said.

The statement gave residents tips on how to protect themselves but gave no information as to changes in security and no phone number to call with questions, he said.

“Giving us little bulletins that say, ‘You should lock your doors and car,’ doesn’t do us any good,” Stoecker said. “It’s like they’re saying it’s our fault that it happened. The biggest thing (that upsets me) is that there are no answers, they just send you dead end e-mails.”