Over the course of two weeks there have been at least five different shootings and violent crimes, all suspects under the age of 18 in Springfield. Police say the recent rash of crime is due to two separate groups of males who are wreaking havoc in the area. They don’t claim any organized gang affiliation and aren’t feuding over drugs or territory, according to Springfield Police Department Deputy Chief Dennis Arnold he says its all petty. Deputy Chief Arnold said, “why they do what they do, I don’t know, and I bet some of them couldn’t answer that question and some just run off the direction of others or they want to be apart of something, and they think that carrying a gun and shooting a gun is a way to be apart of something. ” Arnold believes the groups are recruiting as young as 12 years old.