Fatal shooting in Delray may be linked to feud
A feud in Delray Beach and retaliation for a 2016 murder could be behind Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man, police said Wednesday.
Branden Newman was identified as the man killed. Another man injured in the shooting was hospitalized but his namewas not released for his own protection, Police Chief Jeff Goldman said at the news conference.
The injured man was in critical but stable condition. A third person believed to be involved in the shooting drove himself to a hospital but he was also not identified for his protection, police spokeswoman Dani Mo sch ella said.
The shooting happened on the 100 block of Northwest Sixth Avenue., several blocks east of Interstate 95, north of Atlantic Avenue. Police arrived to find Newman dead at the edge of the parking lot of St. John Primitive Baptist Church, police spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.
The violence continued later that night when a drive-by shooting was reported on Northwest First Street, blocks away from the fatal shooting scene.
Then around noon Wednesday, police reported another drive-by shooting near Southwest Sixth Street and Southwest Seventh Avenue, about a mile away from the fatal shooting.
“We’re investigating those to see if they’re related,” Moschella said.
Noone was hit in either of those shootings, she said.
Chief Goldman said the shooting may be part of a feud between two loosely associated groups connected to the James and Johnson families.
“Over the last several years, we’ve had a lot of shootings and one thing I’ve been talking about, at least to my staff and the community members that I’ve been in touch with, is that enough is enough,” Goldman said. “We really got to put an end to this.”
The two groups have been linked to at least five homicides and dozens of shootings dating back to 2009. In a 2014 shooting connected to the feud, a 14-year-old boy was hit by a bullet fragment during a retaliatory shooting, police spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.
Goldman said he also believes the shooting was retaliation for a the murder of Jarvis Collins, 30, a Delray Beach city worker, in February 2016.
Collins worked as a maintenance worker fo the city for about six weeks before being gunned down Feb. 18, 2016.
Detectives at the time said Collins “spent the last day of his life as a peacekeeper trying to stop a violent cycle of shootings and retaliation between two feuding families.”
Despite the recent spike in shootings, Goldman is optimistic after a number of people have come forward with information, which didn’t happen last year, Moschella said.
“It’s helpful butwe need more,” she said. “He’s concerned that someone else is going to get hurt or killed. An innocent person might get caught in crossfire.”
Goldman urges people who saw the shooting or have information about the shooting or a dark- colored SUV involved in the shooting to call them at 561-243-7800.