SPRINGDALE -- Four days after a 14-year-old boy was shot while riding his bicycle, police searched a silver 2007 Lexus for a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol.
They found nothing, according to a search warrant filed Wednesday at the Washington County Circuit Court.
Shooting
Springdale police continue to investigate the shooting of a 14-year-old boy at 6:25 p.m. June 25 at Marylyn Street and Crawford Avenue, Capt. Ron Hritz said Friday. A silver vehicle linked to the shooting was searched June 29 but no gun was found, documents show. Two men — Jose Yanez, 18, of Rogers, and Hector Torres Vega, 20, of Lowell — are charged in the shooting. Vega and Yanez entered not guilty pleas Wednesday and were at the Washington County Detention Center with $250,000 in bonds and a $200,000 bond respectively, according to jail logs Friday.
Source: Staff report
Police wouldn't say Friday if they found the gun used in the most-recent, gang-related shooting at 6:25 p.m. June 25 at Marylyn Street and Crawford Avenue.
Police are continuing their investigation into the boy's shooting, said Capt. Ron Hritz, police spokesman. Police haven't released the boy's name because he's younger than 18.
In the warrant, police said they hoped to find the gun, ammunition and pistol magazines.
The warrant shines more light on a shooting police say stemmed from a chance encounter between "rival gangs" at a Kum & Go convenience store at 1010 N. Thompson St. The gangs are known as "TLS" and "WBS," Hritz said.
Two youths among a group of four scuffled at the store and scattered when a clerk said he was calling police, Hritz said. Some ran away on foot, others got into a car, according to police records.
A few minutes later, a silver car stopped the 14-year-old boy near his home, just blocks from the store, according to the warrant. A man got out of the car and asked the boy who he was and where he lived, according to the report. When the boy didn't answer, the man took out a gun and shot him twice, police said.
The boy was shot in the upper leg area and a hand, police said. The shooter got back in the car, which took off northbound on Marylyn Street, according to the warrant.
The boy ran toward his home screaming "I'm bleeding!" neighbor Mike Glasgow said the next day. Glasgow pointed from his porch to the grass in his yard where he helped the boy lay down. He said he saw blood coming from under the boy's shorts and "holes" in the boy's legs.
Those leg wounds could have been from shrapnel, Glasgow said. Hritz said Friday the boy had multiple "entry and exit" wounds but wouldn't say if the leg wounds were from bullet fragments or shrapnel from a bullet hitting the boy's bicycle.
Police found two .45 shell casings and "bullet fragments" at the scene, according to the warrant.
The boy was rushed to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville where he underwent surgery, according to his family. He was released from the hospital and will be able to attend school next month, Hritz said.
Two men have been charged in the shooting. Hector Torres Vega, 20, who police say shot the boy, lives in Lowell, according to jail records. Police believe the driver was Jose Yanez, 18, of Rogers, who told police he was in the process of buying the silver car police searched, according to court and police documents.
Many of the gang members involved in the fight live in Lowell, Hritz said.
Police also arrested Octavio Soltero, 18, of 1101 N. Pleasant St., Apt. D, and a boy when police saw them running west on Backus Avenue near the store just after the fight, according to an arrest report. The two were not involved in the shooting, Hritz said.
Police interviewed the two, according to the arrest report. In the warrant, police said a person involved in the fight identified Vega to police as the person "brandishing a pistol as the (silver) vehicle traveled west on Backus (Avenue)," according to the warrant.
After the boy was shot, one witness told police the driver was wearing a green hair band and could be a woman, according to the warrant. Yanez told police he had "never driven the vehicle and had allowed his girlfriend to drive it," according to the warrant. He refused to tell police his girlfriend's name.
Police don't expect to make more arrests directly linked to the case and believe only Yanez and Vega were in the car, Hritz said.
The boy's shooting also doesn't appear to be retribution for other gang-related shootings in Springdale, Hritz said. Since March, two men died in gang-related shootings, and three people, including the boy on the bicycle, were wounded. Police arrested other boys connected to drive-by shootings.
Police have been tight-lipped about which gangs are in Springdale. Hritz said Friday police are leery to release information out of fear publicity might spur gang members to carry out more crimes.
Even so, police have given community presentations that include some details about local gang members.
Detective Fredy Villeda named the "Termite Locos" as a local gang during a presentation to parents in May. Residents near the sites of the two fatal shootings have said they know a gang called "Savage Locos," named after a nearby street.
Police have also had run-ins with members from gangs known as Wicked Brown Suspects and the Brown Pride Midgets, police documents show.
Villeda said local gangs often wear black or blue colors, but Hritz said members frequently change affiliations, colors and logos.
NW News on 07/26/2015