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Police still searching for clues in Greenport home invasion case

Three armed suspects wearing masks broke into a Greenport home and assaulted two occupants during an early morning home invasion Friday, according to Southold Town police. 

The break-in on Center Street occurred just before 5 a.m. in what police described as a “targeted crime.”

The injured residents were treated at local hospitals and released, police said. The suspects remain at large.

Police Chief Martin Flatley said it was unclear how long the suspects were inside, but he believed it was a relatively quick crime.

“We think they were in and out of there in a short amount of time,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

Police have not released descriptions of any suspects and await processing of fingerprints and DNA found at the scene.

“Anything to run in the database to see if there are any hits,” Chief Flatley said.

The home, at the corner of Third Street, has an upstairs apartment, where the break-in occurred, and a downstairs apartment. The chief said he believed the downstairs apartment was occupied at the time but couldn’t comment further.

The Suffolk County Police Department is assisting in the investigation and its crime lab spent about eight hours processing the scene, Chief Flatley said. Police cordoned off the street in front of the home, where investigators were seen marking evidence in the street.

Police said it has not been determined what, if anything, was stolen from the apartment.

“Usually there’s a vendetta or settling a score, and the suspect can be identified almost right away,” Chief Flatley said. “I don’t think that’s the case here.”

No drugs were recovered at the home, he added. While the suspects were armed, there was no gunfire.

Neighbors outside the home Friday morning said they were unsure what had happened.

While some Greenport residents said they were shocked to hear about the crime, many others in community said they do not feel threatened.

“It doesn’t make me feel any less safe,” said a Greenport Village man Tuesday.

He said that, in general, the summer season calls for a heightened police presence in the area.

“Most of these situations tend to be people known to each other,” he added. “[Greenport] isn’t a place with some kind of prevailing crime problem.”

As detectives continue to conduct interviews, Chief Flatley reiterated that residents should not be alarmed.

“We don’t have a lot of home invasions,” he said, adding that the crime is inconsistent with typical incidents in Greenport.

“You usually don’t see this kind of violence,” he said, noting that most burglaries target in vacant or summer homes.

The Center Street home is located just around the block from the Second Street house where a Greenport woman was killed in July 2017.

Anyone with information on the home invasion is asked to call 631-765-2600.

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