Syracuse police arrest 2 in connection with shooting that injured 79-year-old Updated Nov 28, 2017; Posted Nov 27, 2017

https://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/11/syracuse_police_arrest_2_in_connection_with_shooting_that_injured_79-year-old.html

By Catie O'Toole

cotoole@syracuse.com,

syracuse.com

Joe Washington, left, and Miequin Cheese, right.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police arrested two men they say took part in an exchange of gunfire last month that damaged two homes and injured a 79-year-old man.
Court papers filed in Syracuse City Court say the victim was shot in the head, however, police have said a bullet pierced the windshield of the victim's car and grazed the top of his head.
Police charged Miequin O. Cheese, 26, and Joe L. Washington Jr., 23, with second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment, both felonies.
Cheese also was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and a parole violation, for which he remains at the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail, according to the county website.
There is no record of Washington at the county jail currently.
State prison records show Cheese served a 3 1/2-year sentence, starting in December 2012, for a felony criminal possession of a weapon conviction from Onondaga County. He was released from Willard, a drug treatment campus operated by the state Department of Correctional Services, in August 2016. He was scheduled to be released from parole Nov. 22, 2018, records show.
Police say Cheese was a passenger in a 2005 Mazda Tribute that Washington was driving when they "acted in concert" and "recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to another person" at 11:56 p.m. Oct. 18 in the 200 block of Furman St., court records say.
Court records allege Cheese fired a loaded firearm at another person, in the exchange of gunfire.
Investigators have said they do not believe the 79-year-old man was the shooter's intended target.
After the man was shot, he drove himself down the street to the Furman & Salina Auto parking lot and asked for help.
When officers arrived, the victim was conscious and able to speak, police have said. The man was then taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment.
This wasn't the first time Cheese was involved in a shooting, records show.
In 2008, Cheese, then 17, was the victim of a drive-by shooting on Syracuse's South Side. In that shooting, Cheese suffered a gunshot wound to his left arm, and the projectile traveled through his shoulder and lodged in the base of his skull, according to a police report.

When shots rang out at noon, one hit a 78-year-old man

Multiple shots weere fired on Furman Street between Midland Avenue and South Salina Street in Syracuse. One bullet grazed a 78-year-old driver's head who happened to be in the area, police said.