No connection between three recent shootings that resulted in minor injuries, Cape police say

Three Cape Girardeau shootings that occurred in less than two months are unrelated, and police have had trouble making arrests in connection to the incidents.

All three shootings occurred within a three-mile radius of each other and left their victims with minor injuries. The incidents appear to be unrelated and are not gang-related, said Cape Girardeau police spokesman Darin Hickey. In two of the three shootings, victims and witnesses were reluctant to give police information, making leads in the investigation difficult to find, Hickey said.

On Aug. 6, one shot was fired after a fight broke out at Rhodes 101, 1126 N. Sprigg St. A suspect suffered a wound to his thigh when a gun went off in his car while he was trying to flee police shortly after the altercation. He crashed into a Southeast Missouri State University police officer's vehicle. A Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety said in August it would seek charges.

On Oct. 1, officers responded to a call in the 1000 block of Bloomfield Street and found a man who had been shot in the lower left leg. Police said the man was taken to an area hospital and that his injury was not life-threatening.

Two days later, an altercation at South Sprigg Street and Highway 74 led to a man pulling out a gun and shooting another man in the leg. The victim was taken to an area hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

Although the two most recent shootings occurred in rapid succession in roughly the same area of town, Hickey said the second one was not a retaliation for the first. Not much is known, however, because of witnesses' reluctance to speak.

"We don't have enough information to make any arrests right now," Hickey said.

The two most recent shootings occurred in an area that has seen 13 assaults in the last month, according to police reports. Fourteen arrests were also made in South Cape in the past month.

Police continue to investigate the shootings along with other incidents that occur in the area, Hickey said. Despite the crimes that have occurred in the area lately, Hickey said, they are not representative of the people who live in South Cape.

"It's not just there," Hickey said. "Crime happens all over the city, and we're doing everything we can to control it."

psullivan@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

1126 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO

Bloomfield Street, Cape Girardeau, MO

South Sprigg Street and Shawnee Parkway, Cape Girardeau MO