Pasadenans concerned about gun violence following this month’s fatal Washington Park shooting of 64-year-old resident Mickey Cooper — brother of ex-Lakers star Michael Cooper — got a sense of how the city hopes to improve public safety at a standing-room-only town hall meeting at the Santa Catalina Library this week.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Pasadena councilmembers, department heads and the chief of police laid out their short- and long-range plans for keeping the community safe, including the possibility of adding lights, security cameras, fences and police patrols to the park.

While the assembled crowd of more than 50 people were mostly satisfied with the broad range of solutions, the concern among some residents was the timeline for making the changes, some of which may not affect the park for over a year.

“It remains to be seen what’s actually going to happen,” Pasadena resident David Wolff said after the meeting. “It all sounded well and good, but the follow-through is going to be the most important thing that I’m waiting on.”

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo emphasized that some of the solutions will have to go through the city’s budget process, and others may be a matter of soliciting bids and finding contractors, both of which add to the timeline. He also asked town hall attendees to show up for those upcoming budget hearings to ensure their priorities are heard, as previous calls for additional public safety funding for the park did not garner enough support.

Among the more immediate changes that can be made include increasing the patrols in the area and the number of park safety specialists, funding for which is to be addressed at Monday’s City Council meeting.

In addition to the potential equipment and technology upgrades, officials also emphasized other community based means of making the city safer, such as reporting suspicious activity to the police nonemergency line or contacting Crime Stoppers for a more proactive approach toward safety.

Other, more long-range approaches the city is undertaking now include the Pasadena Outreach Response Team for homelessness, its HOPE Center tackling mental health issues, and the city’s recent acquisition of a site on Lake Avenue slated for an outpatient mental health treatment facility.

However, despite the recent violent occurrences in the headlines, Pasadena Police Chief Eugene Harris emphasized that both crime and violence incidents in the city are down in recent years, and Pasadena remains a comparatively safe city in L.A. County.

“It’s a great neighborhood and a great park,” Gordo added. “We shouldn’t stigmatize it.”

“You can’t believe everything you read on NextDoor,” one community member at the meeting volunteered.

The meeting follows two shootings at Washington Park in the last month.

On Nov. 18, Cooper was found suffering from gunshot wounds after Pasadena police responded to a ShotSpotter gunshot detection alert in the 700 block of East Washington Boulevard, between Lake and El Molino avenues. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested 24-year-old Pasadena resident Aaron Miguel Conell, who has since been charged with murder in connection to Cooper’s death by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

His arraignment was postponed this week to Dec. 14.

Conell also is charged with one count of attempted murder involving an alleged attack early Oct. 29 on a man who was shot in the neck at Washington Park, and one count of assault with a semi-automatic firearm for allegedly walking up to a car and pointing a gun at a man seated in the driver’s seat at a gas station in Pasadena just before 9:30 p.m. Nov. 5, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The charges include allegations that Conell personally used a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun during the commission of the crimes and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim in the Oct. 29 shooting.

The victim’s brother, Michael, was a defensive stalwart during the Lakers’ “Showtime ” championship era in the 1980s. After his playing career ended, he had various coaching positions, including as coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, guiding them to two WNBA titles. He is now the boys’ basketball coach at Culver City High School.

“The reason that my brother was there (is) because it was a safe haven for him, a place that he felt that he could be comfortable and safe,” Michael Cooper told reporters during a Wednesday morning news conference. “And it had been, up until that tragic night this has happened.”

Cooper said he and his brother played regularly at the park when they were growing up.

Conell was taken into custody late Nov. 18 by Pasadena police. He remains jailed in lieu of $4.25 million bail. Police said the shootings appeared to be random attacks.

Police coordinated an arrest operation with members of the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force and the department’s SWAT and K-9 units, according to Pasadena police Lt. Monica Cuellar.

Conell was initially booked at the Pasadena City Jail on suspicion of assault with a firearm, but detectives obtained additional evidence so he was additionally booked on suspicion of murder, Cuellar said.

Conell could face more than 50 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Pasadena Police have been providing extra service in the area.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Pasadena Police at 626-744-4241 or report information anonymously by contacting “Crime Stoppers” at 800-222-TIPS (8477), via yoursmartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store, or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.