Man claims innocence in garage gunfire

FAYETTEVILLE — A man who police say shot at three people in a car inside a Dickson Street parking garage pleaded innocent Monday to a charge of committing a terroristic act.

Travean Billups, 22, of 66 W. Rainsong St. in Farmington, was given a Sept. 8 court date before Washington County Circuit Judge Joanna Taylor. The date is also the same as for Billups’ other pending charges, including one count of attempted murder.

Fayetteville police were sent on June 13 to the parking garage at 609 W. Dickson St. after reports of shots being fired, according to a preliminary report.

Officers found several spent shell casings and signs of bullet strikes on a wall inside the garage. Video surveillance showed several vehicles and people had entered the garage and were involved in a fight.

According to the report, two men entered the garage and ran to where the fight was occurring. One of the men was holding a black handgun and wearing a light blue hat turned to the side.

Police said the people who had been fighting were trying to leave in their vehicles when the man with the handgun began shooting. Three shots hit one of the vehicles.

The driver continued out of the garage and later contacted the police. She identified Billups as the man who had shot at her vehicle, according to the report.

The shooting, the driver said, resulted from prior arguments.

Billups also was arrested June 16, 2020, and charged with attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery, according to documents filed in Washington County Circuit Court and jail records.

Police said at the time Billups had been involved in a drug deal that ended when he shot a man who made arrangements to buy drugs from him. Billups was released June 26, 2020, on $100,000 bond on the attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery charges, but failed to appear for a court date in July, records show.

A warrant for his arrest was issued, and he was arrested on a charge of failure to appear July 14, 2020. Billups was released from jail Nov. 30 on a $500,000 bond in connection with the failure to appear charges.

Billups is being held at the Washington County jail in lieu of a $1 million bond while awaiting trial.