Concord police have been swamped over the past 10 days with a spate of stabbings and a rash of robberies.
Since Sunday, four businesses have been robbed under threat of gun or knife violence, police said. And since May 23, three stabbings have been reported, the most recent of which on Tuesday killed a 23-year-old victim.
“It seems like it’s every night we’re getting hit with something we’d deal with every couple of days or weeks,” police Lt. Sean Ford said Thursday.
Ford said most of the incidents were likely drug-related.
“We obviously still have this ongoing opioid crisis that’s equally matched with a methamphetamine problem,” he said. “People are using drugs, seeking drugs and trying to find ways to support that habit.”
Police announced on Thursday two new robberies of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Manchester Street and the Shell gas station on Loudon Road, which occurred about 4:46 p.m. Wednesday and 1:43 a.m. Thursday, respectively.
The suspect in each case was described as a white man in his 20s. The former had a knife, police said, while the latter threatened that he had a gun.
During the first and second robberies, which took place Sunday and Monday in the afternoon, the suspect entered a Family Dollar and 7-Eleven and passed a note to the clerk saying he had a gun and telling the clerk to “empty the cash register.”
Police said three or more of the robberies appear as though they could have been performed by the same man. The suspects have been described as between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall with dark clothing, dark hair and blue eyes. On Sunday, the man rode away on a dark mountain bike, police said.
As the days wear on with new reports of violent crime, Ford said, “The most important thing for us right now is to continue a good partnership with our community. It’s one of those, ‘If you see something, say something.’ Call the police department, pull an officer aside, call the crimeline.”
He added: “It’s almost a responsibility on some level to help keep the community safe. … Even if you think it’s insignificant, something you observe, it may not be as insignificant to investigators.”
Although New Hampshire has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the country, and Concord is often insulated from the worst in the state, Ford said episodes like those in the past 10 days reveal that the city isn’t immune.
“We do have an underbelly that surfaces sometimes,” he said. “There’s a common denominator there, being narcotics and that community that engages in use and distribution of narcotics.”
He added: “This is an uptick. Hopefully it’s not a trend that’s going to continue.”
Police have asked anyone with information about these incidents to call the regional crimeline at 226-3100.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)