Two Drive-By Shottings Within Two Hours
By: Import User
Updated: July 15, 2008
The Garden District of Monroe is a relatively quiet and crime free area, but two drive-by shootings early Sunday morning have neighbors concerned and police hunting for clues as they search for a victim.
Mike Gibbens has lived in his garden district home for 30 years. After hearing about two drive-by shootings that happened just blocks away, he feels like crime is beginning to hit too close to home.
"Im concerned that crime is spreading in the city and certainly beginning to spread north to the residential neighborhoods up at this side of the city."
One of the shootings happened at a gas station on N. 3rd and Louisville in Monroe. Police say four young people stopped there about 7 a.m. Sunday after leaving Club Envy, but they werent expecting what happened next.
Police say a victim was riding in the backseat of a Cadillac when a black SUV pulled up next to them, and shot through the back window hitting the 15 year-old girl in the wrist. Just two hours before that, police say a white Chevy Capris with spinning rims shot through a window at the News-Star office, narrowly missing the employee sitting on a couch inside.
But Major Don Bartley of Monroe Police says, “We have no reason to believe the shooting at the News-Star had anything to do with the other shooting. It could have been the same shooter, but we dont know."
While police continue to search for the suspects in both shootings, Bartley says they also have a warrant out for 24-year-old Perry Collins. He was driving the Cadillac when it was shot outside the gas station.
“He refused to bring the vehicle to us,” says Bartley. “The vehicle is a crime scene because the girl was riding in it and got shot in it, so weve subsequently obtained a warrant for him for obstruction of justice."
Police are also looking into how two underage girls, one 15 and the other 16, got inside the after hours club, long after the city curfew was enforced. On weekends, minors cannot be on their own from midnight to 5 a.m.
(Copyright 2008, NBC 10/Fox 14 News, Written by Casey Ferrand)
