A group of young men escaped death last night after they vehicle they were traveling in was shot at multiple times. James Sanchez was driving a black Nissan Frontier on Dean Street at around 10 minutes before 8 last night. Before he could get across the East Canal Bridge a gunman opened fire on the moving vehicle. It happened just down from Channel 7, and Alfonso Noble has been following the story since morning, here's his report.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
This black Nissan Frontier bears the marks of last night's shooting incident that occurred on Dean Street sometime before 8. It has bullet holes in the bumper, the windows, the rear windshield, the drivers side door, the left passenger door and a deflated front driver's side tire. While that was the vehicle, at the scene of the shooting on Dean Street we found this bullet hole on a nearby fence and a block down the street a bullet penetrated the window of the apartment of Pauline Thompson.
Pauline Thompson,
"Last night about minutes to 8 I heard the gunshots and when I came inside I saw a bullet hole in my bedroom and I saw my stuff broken up, I heard the noise from my draw, my cosmetics were broken up on the dressing table, and when I came in here I saw my baby flat on the floor so I thought my baby was
shot when I ran in here. But she didn't get hurt, only my cosmetics on my dressing table. I was shocked because only my baby was in here, I was outside in the corridor."
Alfonso Noble,
What prompted you to come in here?
Pauline Thompson,
"When I heard my things breaking up, my cosmetics on the dressing table, and I ran and she hollered 'mommy, mommy look there,' and when she hollered that I looked and saw the hole in the window."
Investigating officer Mark August explains what the police found when they responded to Dean Street last night.
Mark August,
"Sometime around 8 last night the police responded to a shooting on Dean Street, 31 Dean Street. Investigations revealed that at the hospital there were two persons who were shot, one in the right side of the back and the other in the left leg. We recovered the vehicle that was extensively damaged by the gunshot. So we have the vehicle here at this time and two persons that are in the hospital. The police recovered about seventeen 9=millimeter expended shells at the scene. It is believed that it is a automatic weapon."
The two persons who were shot are the driver James Sanchez who got shot in the back and 16 year old Dejon Martinez who received a gunshot to the left foot near his knee. But they were not the only ones in the vehicle; a 17 year old and a 15 year old were unhurt. The 23-year-old driver James Swan Jr. also received no injury. Police are now trying to determine what motivated the shooting.
Mark August,
"At this time the motive is not determined, it is still under investigation. We have a suspect at this time, a person detained, but the motive is undetermined at this time."
But while the motivation for the shooting is yet to be determined for Pauline Thompson whose child, 5-year-old Shinel Waters, was seated on the bed right in the path of the bullet, she could care less. All she would ask is that it stop.
Pauline Thompson,
"I just want to tell them to be more careful because I didn't do anyone anything and a bullet came through my window."
Police have one person detained pending charges.
