Investigators William Salyers and Heather Williams bag evidence on Sunday from a shooting on 4th Street in Downtown Chattanooga between Market and Cherry Streets. The shooting happened around midnight on Christmas Eve leaving nine people wounded.Chattanooga Police Department investigators are sending off numerous casings to the lab and interviewing gunshot victims as they recover and hope to prevent any retaliation that may happen if a church youth group goes forward with a planned New Year’s Eve party.
Early on Christmas, a fight that began inside a party after church services at Mosaic Church, 412 Market St., left nine people wounded when gunfire erupted within the block.
“Any bullets recovered from them [the victims], we’re sending those to the lab. [Officer] Jacques [Weary] was involved in that shooting. We found no evidence that anybody was hit,” said Chattanooga Police Assistant Chief Tim Carroll. “We want to make sure that any of these [people] that showed up at the hospitals isn’t somebody he shot at. We’ll be able to tell what caliber of bullets.”
Two rival gangs clashed inside at the party, flashing gang signs, police said, and a few people were removed from inside.
“It’s possible that they went outside and waited for them to come out and that’s when all the shooting took place,” Carroll said.