Gang shooting followed earlier fights

Friday, Sept. 19, 2003 | 11 a.m.

A gang-related shooting Wednesday in the 1300 block of East Oakey Boulevard near 15th Street was the culmination of prior fights that occurred Monday and Tuesday nights, Metro Police said this morning.

Sgt. Dave Stansbury of Metro's gang unit said a car with four gang members drove east on Oakey looking for an indivudual who is the boyfriend of a rival gang member's ex-girlfriend.

As they approached the targeted house, police believe two shooters in a different car opened fire on them. All four occupants of the car were wounded by as many as 15 to 18 rounds, Stansbury said.

The driver slumped over the steering wheel and the car crashed into the back of a parked sedan, damaging both cars. Two of the victims tried to run away, but their injuries kept them from getting far, police said. They hid their guns in some bushes and ran to a house in the 1300 block of Oakey, police said.

Police and paramedics arrived and the victims were taken to University Medical Center, where two of the victims were listed in critical condition.

Officers cordoned off the area and evacuated several homes. Metro's SWAT team and negotiators were called to the scene in the case a barricaded suspect were inside. Police searched the house and found no one, Stansbury said.

One person at the scene was arrested on unrelated warrants, police said.

The suspects are two Hispanic males in their early 20s who may have left the scene in a white car and a dark green or blue four-door sedan with damage to the front grille. Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call the gang crimes unit at 229-3309 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.