Man, baby hurt as shooter fires into car as longtime feud rages
DELRAY BEACH — One person was shot and a baby sustained minor injuries as the result of a longstanding feud that erupted again Monday, city police said.
A bystander also was injured after he was hit by flying debris.
Delray Beach police said a person inside a stolen black Volkswagen Jetta shot into a gray Honda Accord just before noon at the intersection of Northwest Third Street and Northwest 10th Avenue, striking a man in the shoulder.
Shots continued to be fired as the cars traveled southbound, police said. The injured driver then drove through front yards along Southwest 10th Avenue and smashed into a tree. A baby inside the Accord sustained a knot on its forehead and small cuts from broken glass.
The person who was shot sustained injuries that were not considered to be life-threatening, according to police. The bystander declined medical treatment.
The alleged gunman then dumped the Jetta on Prospect Street, near the initial shooting scene. As a precaution, S.D. Spady Elementary School on Northwest Third Street was placed on lockdown. Officials lifted the lockdown at about 2 p.m., the end of the school day.
The Jetta recently was reported stolen from West Palm Beach, police said. The gunman is believed to have fled the area after being picked up in another vehicle, a police spokeswoman said.
Delray Beach police said the incident is the latest in a feud between the James and Johnson families that has included nearly 50 shootings since police began tracking the violence between the two sides in May 2014.
The shootings have resulted in five deaths. Only one has led to an arrest.
Before Monday’s violence, the most recent victim was a 25-year-old man who sustained life-altering injuries Sept. 24 after a drive-by shooting near Spady Elementary.
On July 18, a 10-year-old boy narrowly escaped with his life after being shot in the leg while inside a home at Northwest First Street. Police said the bullet barely missed his femoral artery.
A woman who declined to give her name said she saw two cars racing south Monday on Southwest 10th. Then she heard the gunshots. She estimated there were about 10.
“It’s broad daylight,” she said. “They just don’t care.”
The wreck involving the Accord demolished the vehicle and cut off the top of the tree from its trunk. Crime scene investigators marked one of the car’s paths in orange paint. They traced the path through a lawn and into the tree.
The neighbor said the baby in the back seat appeared to be OK. Another neighbor cared for the child after the wreck.
“They don’t even care he have a baby?” asked a friend who’d stopped by to check on the woman.
She shook her head.
The woman calls her block of 10th Avenue “the good block.” She guessed that the cars were just passing through. The neighborhood where most of the shootings have taken place is east of Interstate 95 but north of Atlantic Avenue.
Police stressed Monday that only good fortune has kept innocent victims, including children, from being added to the feud’s death toll.
“There are people out there who know who did this,” police spokeswoman Dani Moschella said. “We need their help.”
Anyone with information please call Detective Oscar Leon at (561) 243-7800.