"This tragedy raises many questions about how our community can better deal with the gang problem. In the days and weeks to come, I will work with Police Chief (Chris) Burbank and other law enforcement and community leaders to assess our efforts and identify new strategies for keeping our community safe," he said in his statement.

Many residents in Menchaca's neighborhood said the sound of gunfire was nothing new in their neighborhood. The Glendale area in particular has had a few high-profile gang-related homicides in recent months including Wally Knapton, the manager of the Family Dollar store, 1145 S. Glendale Drive (1350 West) earlier this year, and Faviola Hernandez, the owner of The Shop beauty salon, 1329 W. California Ave. (1330 South) on Aug. 15, 2007, during a robbery.

Burbank, who was vacationing with his family out of state when Sunday's shooting occurred, said he has been kept up-to-date on what has been happening at home.

Burbank told the Deseret News Tuesday that great improvements in policing have actually been made in the Glendale area since the Family Dollar homicide.

"Mobile watch has increased, we have neighborhood watch, more community involvement," he said. "Glendale is not worse than any other area. We have problems that happen all over the city. I've seen a great deal of improvement in the Glendale area. We have a lot fewer problems than 10 or 15 years ago."

Gang problems or robberies or burglaries can happen anywhere in the city, he said.

The key to improving the area is getting the community involved, he said. Since January, Burbank said an additional 40 people have signed up to become neighborhood or mobile watch volunteers in Salt Lake, with the majority of new members coming from the Glendale and Rose Park areas.

"Residents know much better than we do who belongs in a neighborhood," he said. "We need to open better lines of communication with them."

While extra patrols of Glendale that started after the Dollar Store shooting will continue, Burbank conceded that stopping a drive-by shooting is nearly impossible.

"The prevention needs to occur long before the guy gets in the car and goes to do the drive-by shooting," he said.

To do that, anti-gang and anti-violence messages need to continue to be taught in the schools and rec centers, he said. Progress has been made in Glendale, Burbank insists, but suffered a setback Sunday.

"It's a horrible event. We monitor these types of things constantly. For silly unknown reasons, these types of things flare up. It's just horrible when an innocent person like this is caught in the fire," Burbank said.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com