Fourth suspect arrested in bridge shooting

Berwick police say they teamed with other agencies to arrest the fourth and final suspect in the Feb. 17 U.S. 90 bridge shooting, which wounded three people, including a child.

Da’mari Watkins, 18, was arrested early Wednesday in Lafayette Parish, the Berwick Police Department said. Watkins was booked on four counts of attempted first-degree murder.

He remains incarcerated with no bond set.

The shooting into a vehicle on the bridge resulted in non-life-threatening injuries to three people, including an 8-year-old. Another occupant, also a child, wasn’t wounded. As Berwick police investigated the crime scene, Morgan City police reported that three gunshot wound victims had arrived at Ochsner St. Mary.

Berwick police had already arrested Adonte Williams, 18, Patterson, and two juveniles in the case but had been unable to locate Watkins.

Then, on Wednesday, Berwick police, working with state agencies, gathered information that led them to Terrebonne Parish and then to a possible location for Watkins in the Lafayette area.

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office made contact with Watkins and processed him as a fugitive before turning him over to Berwick police.

Berwick Police Chief David Leonard thanked these agencies for their assistance: the Louisiana State Police Fugitive Task Force, the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigative Unit , Louisiana attorney general’s investigators (Louisiana Bureau of Investigation), the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Morgan City Police Department and the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“Chief Leonard would like to let the criminal element know that we will not tolerate this type of gun violence in our town,” the Berwick Police Department said in a press release. “We will use every investigative tool possible to seek you out and bring you to justice if you are involved in this type of activity.”