Local teens arrested following shooting

Published 12:10 am Tuesday, June 24, 2014

FERRIDAY Bad blood over a year-old argument apparently was enough motivation for two local teens to open fire on another resident this weekend.

Ferriday Interim Police Chief Derrick Freeman said officers responded to a call of shots fired at approximately 11:13 p.m. Saturday around the area of the former Haney’s Big House on First Street.

Jonterius Townsend, 17, and Jarvis Turner, 17, drove to the location hoping to visit a fair that was in town for the weekend, but found it was closed by the time they arrived, Freeman said.

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The teens kept driving in the area and spotted Gregory Blair shortly after leaving the fair’s location. Freeman said the two teens had gotten in a fight with Blair in June 2013.

“I guess it was something between them that was still boiling over, because they stopped and jumped out of the truck ready to fight,” Freeman said. “But instead of fighting him, they pulled guns on him and starting shooting.”

Freeman said Blair immediately ran toward his mother’s house, which was nearby, and called the police.

“Thank God (Blair) didn’t get hit and that no one or nothing else got hit from those bullets,” Freeman said. “The officers went back, got warrants and made the arrests.”

Turner, 243 Concordia Park Drive, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault by drive-by shooting.

Townsend, 17 Horseshoe Circle, Natchez, was arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Freeman said his department is working to upgrade Turner’s charge to attempted second-degree murder.

In Louisiana, attempted second-degree murder charge can result in a prison sentence from five to 15 years.

“This kind of activity will not be tolerated in Ferriday,” Freeman said. “We want our people to be safe, and that means these senseless acts of violence can’t continue to occur.”