Five arrested after paintball incident at West Palm park
Man tells police that suspects laughed while firing at him.
WEST PALM BEACH — As four men and a juvenile drove near a city park Tuesday, they laughed as they fired shots from a paintball gun at a man lying under a gazebo, covering him with blue paint, West Palm Beach police said.
Police officers, however, weren’t amused. They detained the men and the juvenile after pulling their white Buick over.
The men involved were identified as Cordell Robinson, 22, Donnell Perry Jr., 19, Keith Wade, 19, and Antwan Sturgis, 18, all of Riviera Beach.
A 17-year-old suspect was not identified.
According to police, the alleged paintball incident happened shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday at Currie Park, on Flagler Drive north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.
A 47-year-old man told police he was lying under a gazebo just north of the park when he heard a loud popping sound, and felt the paintball pellets hit his body.
The man said he looked in the direction from which the shots came and saw five people laughing as they drove away. He had paintball injuries — bruises and abrasions — to his torso, head and arms, police said.
Officers spotted the vehicle in the area of 26th Street and Ponce De Leon Avenue and pulled it over.
Perry, who was driving, spontaneously uttered that there were no real guns in the car, said police, who found four paintball guns in the Buick.
Sturgis and Robinson were held without bond at a hearing at the Palm Beach County Jail on Wednesday morning. Bail was set at $5,000 for Perry and Wade.