Residents of Adams, Massachusetts, the former milltown in the Berkshires where a man was arrested this month on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, say the incident is scary – but could have happened anywhere.
Twenty-three-year-old suspect Alexander Ciccolo lived on Murray Street — a quiet, working-class, tree-lined block with modest one and two-story homes and children riding around on bikes.
So neighbors like Darrell Pinsonneault say they were unprepared for the commotion that started on July 4th, when Ciccolo was arrested.
‘They had a fire engine blocking off that side of the street, the hazmat vehicle was here, two FBI SUV’s with about 10 agents and the Adams Fire chief. So we knew something was up,” says Pinsonneault. “Initial rumors were it was a meth lab.”
Pinsonneault, a nursing home cook, says he used to see Ciccolo walking around the neighborhood.
“He always was kind of ragged with barefoot and sandals. He kept to himself,” he says. “I didn’t know him personally but he just didn’t seem like he should be around here.”
Pinsonneault says he found it unsettling to think someone planning a violent attack lived so close to his home. Another neighbor, Loretta Rysz-Vinette, says nothing shocks her anymore.
‘I see so many characters around here, they come and go, and you don’t know what they’re up to anyways,” she says.
Murray street is just around the corner from a row of shops and restaurants – including Dick and Joan’s Corner Lunch.
“We thought we knew everyone in the community,” says owner Dick Carrigan. “But apparently you don’t.”
Carrigan says he doesn’t remember Ciccolo ever coming in. Since the arrest, his customers have been talking of little else – mostly with disbelief.
“A little town like this, you never think that’s gonna happen,” he says. “But that happens everywhere.”
Adams Town administrator, Tony Mazzucco, says the FBI never told him they were investigating one of the town’s residents, but he wouldn’t expect them to.
‘I have complete faith in them that they know what they’re doing,” Mazzucco says, “and I’m perfectly OK hearing about it in the news just like everyone else.”
The attention on Murray Street does seem to be waning – by Tuesday, only one TV reporter from Albany was doing live coverage there, as the focus changes to Ciccolo’s criminal case in Springfield federal court.
