Posted on 06/13/2004 5:42:29 PM PDT by doubleA
Selma police arrested Lorenzo Walker Saturday, shortly after he allegedly ended his son's birthday party with a hail of bullets.
The shooter was outside the Highland Avenue McDonald's and began firing at Latoya Powell, after the two had left the restaurant while arguing.
"He was at a birthday party for his son," Police Chief Robert Green said. "The victim he shot was his girlfriend's sister. Apparently they'd been feuding for some time."
Witnesses say the shooter argued with Powell and then retrieved a gun from his car and started firing.
Apparently, the man fired eight times, wounding Powell twice, once in the neck and once in the upper torso.
John Green was on the Summerfield side of the McDonald's parking lot. He'd just gotten his order filled and walked to his truck when the shooting started.
"He was shooting sideways...He wasn't aiming, he was just shooting," Green said. "He was hoping to hit somebody."
"Now you know why I go home, go to work and that's it," a visibly shaken Green said. "I ain't never been shot at before."
Brian Sharpe and his family were celebrating a youth baseball win at the Dallas County Sportplex. They'd just sat down to eat when they heard the shots.
"All of a sudden, we heard pop, pop, pop," an ashen-faced Sharpe said. "The glass behind us shattered and this girl came up from the back and said she'd been shot. We just tried to get the kids out."
Six bullets were embedded into two different cars parked nearby, a gray Buick Park Avenue and a blue-green Chrysler New Yorker.
The Buick belonged to Derrick Polnitz, a 32-year-old Selma resident. He said he'd been in line about 10 minutes when the shooting started.
"I hit the floor," Polnitz said. "I didn't see nothing."
Polnitz couldn't understand what prompted the shooting.
"That's messed up...out in public like this," he said.
The other two bullets fired went through a plate glass window into the restaurant.
One of the bullets went over the children's heads, through two more windows and finally buried itself into a wall near the men's room in the back of the building. Another went four feet to the right of the party and lodged itself into an aluminum window frame.
According to J. Green, a small child was in a car seat on one of the tables.
"I just thank the Lord that they didn't get that infant," he said.
Ambulances transported Powell to Vaughan Regional Medical Center. Powell, who is pregnant, is in fair condition, according to hospital officials.
Witnesses said the shooter fled the scene in a white Nissan Maxima.
The Maxima left the scene through the Summerfield exit. Police later apprehended Walker on Alabama Avenue.
Mayor James Perkins was on the scene after the shooting.
"This is just a disgrace," Perkins said. "We're praying for the victim and the family."
Perkins said he plans to discuss the shooting and what can be done at Monday's city council meeting.
"We've got to get these guns off the streets," he said. "They need to bring these guns in and we've got to stop this. I'm making an appeal that the citizens of Selma take these guns...and bring these guns in."
The owners of the store declined to comment. McDonald's replaced the glass a few hours after the shooting. The store was open by 8 p.m.
An officer on the scene, however, did say the restaurant had nothing to do with the crime.
"This could have happened anywhere," Sgt. Swanson said. "This had nothing to do with McDonald's, whatsoever."
Chief Green added that Walker faces a litany of charges. He said they will be announced at a Monday press conference.
Witnesses also said that Walker's mother, who was at the party, had to be taken to Vaughan Hospital for a possible heart condition.
"The suspect's mother had some problems," Chief Green said. "(However) it appears everyone involved is going to be OK."
Get out of California fast, build a fence around it before they infest the rest of the nation, I hope they have an earthquake and everyone gets ki......Oh, wait a minute.....
Is it possible that the guns are really in the possession of individuals who are then responsible for their actions?
Have you had your break today?
If it is hip, then at least we know that they can't hit the broad side of a barn like that....
bttt
Don't you live in CA? LOL
It makes as much sense as wearing pants below-the-butt that they have to hold onto with one hand to shoot sideways, run from the cops, or anything else.
Go figger.
Shocker!
What state is this in? It's helpful to add (state) to the headline where you can't tell from the city name or sometimes from the website source where a place is.
And your point is?
Uh, I was being facetious. Did it get past you?
no
I wonder if this gun was legal? If it were not legally possessed and the shooter not eligible for gun ownership, then laws would not have changed this a bit and would only disarm the law abiding public. I am also curious as to how many times a gun was used today to thwart a crime?
Cyborg got it.
And I gotta admit, it was pretty good.
And your point is?
Yeah hehe well it could happen.. but then maybe we'd see the Foxnews helicopter zeroing in on a little houseboat with a flag initaled JH.
Yep.... that's what I think too.... Wondered how that poster would put it.
As you know, the penchant to prejudice, group-gripe and tribal-justice is a very unConservative, unRepublican, and unAmerican mindset.
His point is, well over 50% of the violent crime in this country is committed by members of an ethnic minority which constitutes 13% of the population. And as appears to be the case in this shooting incident, far more often than not the crime is against another member of that same ethnic group.
Posting that isn't racial bigotry, it's just stating a documented statistic. I'm quite sure the responsible, law abiding segment of that minority deplores the situation as much or more than you or I do. Perhaps you prefer that we all mind our politically correct manners and just gloss over unpleasant facts?
Yea, shooting adults is a-ok.
What is it with people who think that one type of victim should be elevated above all others? Everybody means something to someone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.