Police: More shots fired in Patterson

A week after Patterson Police Chief Patrick LaSalle said shootings had drastically increased in Patterson during the past month, police found evidence of more gunshots Monday night. But police say they are still having trouble getting information from the community.

The gunshots occurred in the area of Taft and Hickory streets. No one was reported to have been hit by the gunfire, police said.

At the Aug. 1 city council meeting, LaSalle said there had been over two dozen shootings in Patterson within the past month. No one had come forward “to communicate with the police department” about the alleged shootings, LaSalle said during the meeting.

LaSalle appealed “to the black community” during the council meeting for people to come forward with any information on the shootings.

Anyone with information on any of these incidents may call the Patterson Police Department at 985-395-6161.

LaSalle told The Daily Review Aug. 3 that there had been 30 reports of discharges of a firearm in Patterson during roughly the past month.

One person was confirmed to have been injured during a late-June shooting on Murphy Street. The victim is believed to have run from there to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue where authorities located him, LaSalle said.

Tyrique Jones, 19, is wanted on a warrant charging him with aggravated second-degree battery requiring medical attention in connection with that shooting. Jones had previously been arrested on an attempted second-degree murder charge stemming from an October 2016 drive-by shooting in the area of Taft and Hickory streets.

Police later confirmed that there were two victims were later confirmed to have been injured in that shooting.