Bogus stolen auto report leads Erie police to charge 3rd suspect in Cherry Street shooting
A Feb. 8 shootout in a west Erie neighborhood that wounded a 14-year-old boy involved a brown Kia Sorento that was reported as stolen less than an hour after police said shots were exchanged between the Kia's occupants and a group of people standing in the 2900 block of Cherry Street.
Police have now charged the person who reported the Kia as stolen with being involved in the shootout.
Anfernee K. Graves, 21, was awaiting arraignment Friday morning on charges including conspiracy to commit homicide, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure in the shootout in the area of West 29th and Cherry streets on Feb. 8. Erie police accuse him of being in the Kia Sorento when gunshots were fired from it at a group of people before some in the group returned fire.
More:Erie police search for more suspects in shooting that wounded 14-year-old on Cherry Street
A 14-year-old boy who was not in the vehicle was struck in the neck by a bullet that exited the left side of his chest, according to police. He was treated at a Pittsburgh hospital.
Graves is the third person charged by Erie police in the shooting investigation. Shmad Page, 15, and Orguna L. Sanders Jr., 20, accused of returning fire after bullets were first shot from the Kia, waived criminal charges filed against them to court at their preliminary hearings on Thursday morning.
More:Erie man, 15-year-old waive charges in shootout on Cherry Street that wounded 14-year-old
Detectives said Friday that the investigation into the shooting continues, with more suspects sought.
Stolen vehicle report challenged
The shooting at West 29th and Cherry streets was reported shortly after 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 8. Erie police reported that a brown Kia Sorento was involved, and that it crashed as it sped off from the area.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8, Erie police received a call from a person who reported that her brown 2019 Kia Sorento had been stolen. An officer who responded to take the stolen vehicle report spoke to the vehicle's owner and to Graves.
According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Graves, he told the officer that he was playing basketball alone in the area of West Second and Cherry streets that afternoon when three juveniles appeared and drove off in the Kia, which he said he left running and with the windows down. He said he then called a friend, who picked him up, and together he and the friend drove around looking for the stolen vehicle, detectives wrote in the complaint.
Graves also told police that he called the vehicle's owner at 4:39 p.m., 6 minutes after the shooting on Cherry Street, to report the vehicle's theft, according to the complaint.
Investigators said the Kia was eventually found abandoned on Hillside Drive on the city's east side on the morning of Feb. 9.
Detectives wrote in the complaint that they learned through witness statements that the person who picked Graves up after he said the vehicle was stolen picked him up at East 10th and Wallace streets, and not West Second and Cherry streets. Investigators said cell phone data showed that Graves had been in the area of the Millcreek Mall before the shooting, and near the shooting scene at the time the shots were fired; he had been at East 10th and Wallace streets when the friend picked him up; and he had been near the area where the Kia was eventually recovered.
Detectives said they spoke to a person they said is an associate of Graves who stated he had been at the Millcreek Mall on Feb. 8, but was there around 1 p.m. When detectives checked surveillance video from the mall that day, they saw Graves, his associate and another person arrive at the mall in the brown Kia Sorento at 4:02 p.m. and then leave at about 4:20 p.m., according to information in the complaint.
Other surveillance video that police reviewed from the area of the shooting showed the Kia approaching West 32nd Street from Poplar Street, turn east onto West 32nd Street and then north onto Cherry Street seconds before the shooting, detectives wrote in the complaint.
More:Erie teen charged as adult in house shooting police say related to Cherry Street incident
New details emerge from complaint
The criminal complaint filed against Graves provides a more detailed picture of what happened during and immediately after the Feb. 8 shootout.
Detectives wrote that surveillance video from businesses in the area showed the Kia traveling north in the 2900 block of Cherry Street when shots were fired from the front seat passenger side window as the vehicle approached a group of people standing in front of a house. The vehicle then continued traveling north toward the intersection of West 29th Street, where it went through a red light while attempting to turn right onto West 29th Street and collided with a Subaru that was traveling east, according to the complaint. Police said the Subaru was left disabled as the Kia drove off.
Police learned after arriving on the shooting scene that some people involved in the incident had reportedly gone into residences in the 2900 and 3000 blocks of Cherry Street. Officers surrounded and checked both residences for additional suspects or victim. Officers found 9 mm shell casings on and around the porch of the residence in the 2900 block of Cherry Street and .357-caliber casings in the road directly in front of the residence, and they found bullet holes in the residence and in a vehicle parked in the driveway, according to the complaint.
Police found two guns while searching the area. A 9 mm semiautomatic pistol was found behind a shed in the back yard of the residence in the 2900 block of Cherry Street. Another gun was found in the back yard of a residence in the 500 block of Stafford Avenue, separated from the Cherry Street residence by a fence, along with clear plastic bags containing pills consistent with being fentanyl, detectives wrote in the complaint.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Police charge third suspect in Cherry Street shootout that wounded boy
