A rash of shooting incidents in Poplar Bluff over the last several days is being blamed on two groups battling each other.
The first incident occurred Friday night, when one person was shot at 750 S. Westwood Blvd.
“According to the people on the scene, there were two individuals out front of the business at Full Tilt when a black Audi drove up and the occupants began firing at them,” said Poplar Bluff Police Lt. Josh Stewart.
Larry Carter Jr., 23 years old, was struck by the gunfire, Stewart said.
Carter’s injuries, Stewart believed, were not serious.
At that point, the person with Carter “ran to his vehicle to retrieve a firearm and began returning fire,” Stewart said.
Six minutes later, another shooting was reported in the 900 block of Gardner.
“We were actually all running to the scene on Westwood when the one on Gardner came out,” Stewart said.
The shooting on Gardner, he said, was “just basically a drive-by.
“They targeted the residents at 947 Gardner, but the only people home were a woman and her daughter.”
Officers on the scene, Stewart said, “counted between 15 and 17 rounds which struck the home.”
No injuries were reported.
A third shooting occurred minutes later in the 600 block of West Lexington, Stewart said.
“While we were doing the scene investigation of that one (at Gardner), we overheard the other shots,” Stewart said.
Stewart estimated officers heard about 15 shots fired in the Lexington area.
“Once we got over there, officers located 12 shell casings in the roadway,” Stewart said, “and we had a vehicle and a house struck” by gunfire, but no injuries were reported.
At 8:58 p.m. Monday, Stewart said, another shooting took place, this time in the 800 block of Adam Street.
“Officers heard approximately 15 gunshots in the area, and a short time later, they received calls regarding the shots,” Stewart said.
After locating several spent shell casings in the roadway, Stewart said, officers “spoke with residents, who indicated a white Chrysler 300 with tinted windows was shooting at a white Ford F150.
Again, no injuries were reported.
All the incidents, Stewart said, are related.
“What it comes down to is we’ve got two groups, and at some point there was a beef of some sort and they decided to start shooting at each other,” he said.
“We’ve worked multiple shootings tied in with both of these groups,” Stewart said. “It’s just constantly back and forth with each other.”
Things had calmed down for a while, he said, but “then we started seeing some of them being released from prison, and all of a sudden, here we go.”
“This latest round of stupidity is totally unacceptable. We have identified and know the majority of the participants and will work diligently with every available law enforcement agency and appropriate laws to put some people in prison for a long time,” said Police Chief Danny Whiteley.
“What people need to realize is when you’ve got idiots in town firing at each other from moving vehicles, one of these days, we’re going to be like Chicago or St. Louis and have some innocent victims or children killed,” Whiteley added.
Investigators continue to follow leads, Stewart said.
“We’re checking everything we can, including residential and business surveillance systems,” Stewart said, “and we’re speaking with other witnesses and canvassing neighborhoods for additional witnesses.
Cooperation from witnesses, however, has proven to be difficult.
“We get to these scenes and we may have a witness who is willing to cooperate, but we lack a lot of victim cooperation,” Stewart said. “When we do have somebody hit, nobody wants to talk.”
“We know there are some witnesses that in their best interest should come forward before possibly being called to testify at a future grand jury hearing,” Whiteley said.