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.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man has been accused of stabbing
a man to death during a Fourth of July gathering at Oneida Shores Park,
according to Onondaga County Sheriff Gene Conway.
Joe L. Washington, 24, of 1310 Midland Ave., Syracuse, was charged
Thursday with second-degree murder and third-degree criminal possession
of a weapon, Conway said.
Maurice B. Crawford, 26, of Syracuse, was stabbed the evening of July
4 during an argument at the Bartell Road park in Cicero. He was rushed
in a private vehicle to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse where he
died a short time later.
