An Oct. 14 gun battle that started at a local gas station and continued on city streets has led to six arrests, Police Chief
Don Dixon said Mondau at a news conference.
Dixon said the incident is believed to have started over a stolen item, leading to shots being fired at Touchdown Station,
a convenience store on Gerstner Memorial Drive.
The battle continued down Gerstner
Memorial Drive, with shots being fired between two moving vehicles. A
car parked at an
apartment complex on 5th Avenue was shot, as was a home on General
Patton Street, Dixon said. He said the home was hit around
20 times.
No one was injured in the shootings and the incident was not gang-related, Dixon said.
“This is not the wild, wild west,” Dixon said. “We will not tolerate this.”
Twenty-year-old Justin Omar Fowler,
2809 General Mitchell St.; 19-year-old Lucius Malveau, 1003 18th St.;
18-year-old James
Anthony Bellard, 2808 General Mitchell St.; 19-year-old Kenric
Arrington Artis, 1612 Sunset St.; 21-year-old Jarvis Keagen
Aubry Collins, 902 Orange St. and 20-year-old Adam Christopher
Carroll, 2306 Mart Ln., were all arrested in connection with
the incident.
On Oct. 23, Malveau, Bellard and Fowler
were charged with attempted second-degree murder and criminal damage to
property.
All three were being held on a bond of $225,000. City police said
at the time they would not release details of the case until
their investigation was complete.
Kenric was arrested on Oct. 25 and
charged with attempted second-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon and
criminal damage
to property. His bond was set at $150,000. Carroll was arrested
Oct. 26 and charged with illegal use of a weapon, obstruction
of justice and criminal damage to property. His bond was set at
$110,000. Collins was arrested on Oct. 26 and charged with
illegal use of a weapon. He was released after posting $10,000
bond.
Dixon said particularly troubling to
him was the fact that of the six men, only one had a prior mark on their
record — disturbing
the peace — yet the fight escalated to a gun battle at multiple
locations.
“It makes no sense, none,” Dixon said.
Dixon said police first received
reports of shots being fired out of a Chevrolet Impala. When a
subsequent investigation found
bullet holes in the vehicle and two handguns and an SKS assault
rifle in the vehicle, Fowler, Malveau and Bellard were arrested.
The owner of an unoccupied residence on General Patton Street reported bullet holes in his residence the next day, Dixon said.
Dixon said police believe the shooters had the wrong house.
Dixon said also troubling to him is the fact that police are investigating another series of incidents involving firearms
from this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, although those incidents are not linked to the Oct. 14 gun battle. He said no
arrests have been made yet from the weekend’s incidents, but they are expected soon.
“This is disturbing to me, this pattern I’ve seen of these drive-bys,” Dixon said.