Jerrottaye Tyrone Pratcher, of Portland, is accused of attempted murder with a firearm, first-degree assault, disorderly conduct, second-degree trespass and interfering with a peace officer. Portland gang enforcement officers on Wednesday arrested an 18-year-old in connection with a Feb. 2 shooting that stemmed from a gang dispute over a blue knit cap. The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. at a bus stop near North Fessenden Street and Richmond Avenue. Pratcher pulled a handgun and fired three shots into the victim because he felt the victim was "disrespecting the Crips gang by stomping on a blue knit cap," Gang Enforcement Team Lt. Mike Leloff said. The victim was transported to Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center and survived his wounds. Police have recovered the firearm. Leloff said police are noticing an increase in gang-related violence since December, with some of the recent shootings resulting from clear disputes over gang-related turf.
''They may have been into drugs but they didn't do anything to harm anybody,'' said their aunt, Cheryl Watkins. ``It was cold-blooded murder to lay them out like that.''Miami-Dade County's 80th and 81st homicides of 2008: Rashawn and Deon Beneby, brothers and suspects in a string of violent robberies, shot dead Thursday afternoon next to the Liberty City middle school they once attended. ''It's cold-blooded, outright killing out there -- and we're not even in the summer yet,'' said the Rev. Richard Dunn, a community activist who lives three blocks away. Witnesses said a group of men were gathered outside an apartment at the Annie Coleman Gardens housing project when the shooting started.Someone mowed down the brothers, some 15 yards apart, on a grassy strip next to the chain-link fence that separates the community from the baseball field at Charles R. Drew Middle School, 1801 NW 60th St. Rashawn was executed -- shot in the head an...
Comments