Buffalo Restaurant Shooting Suspect Arrested
Thursday, August 19th, 2010Cited: AP
A 25-year-old man has been charged by Western New York police in the fatal shootings of 4 people outside a downtown Buffalo restaurant. Keith Johnson of Buffalo was arrested the afternoon of August 14. Police believe he was the only gunman in the shootings and also wounded four others. He has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder and could face more charges.
Managers had decided to close the City Grill early August 14 after an altercation inside. Police say the victims were leaving at about 2:30 a.m. when gunfire erupted.
“There were verbal things going on. Management apparently chose to close down and have everybody leave the restaurant,” Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said. “People were leaving when this shooting happened.”
Police say they don’t know whether Johnson was involved in the earlier altercation. Johnson was in custody late August 14 afternoon and unavailable for comment.
Investigators did not know how many shooters there were and asked for witnesses to speak up.
“We need people to come forward,” said Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda, who estimated there were 100 people at the scene when police arrived.
The group was attending a party in advance of a more formal anniversary celebration scheduled for later Saturday, authorities said. The couple, a 30-year-old man and his wife, married in Texas a year ago and had returned to celebrate with Buffalo-area friends and family, authorities said. The wife was not injured.
“An occasion that should have been a joyous one, a happy one, turned tragic,” Mayor Byron Brown said Saturday, August 14, near the restaurant, a popular stop for office workers during the week and people attending theater and sporting events at night.
‘Senseless, random killing’
The dead included two men, a 30-year-old and a 26-year-old, and two women, who were 27 and 32, Richards said. Three were pronounced dead at the scene and the fourth died at a hospital.
Authorities did not release the victims’ identities. Raymond Wilhite said his 32-year-old daughter, Tiffany Wilhite, was among those killed.
“A senseless, random killing,” said Wilhite, who returned to the restaurant a few hours after the shooting. “This kind of thing just has to stop.”
The other woman was identified by her mother as Shawntia McNeil, who was Wilhite’s cousin.
“There are no words to explain how I feel,” McNeil’s mother, Ruby Martin, said. “She got along with everybody. She knows a lot of people. She didn’t deserve to be killed. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t intended for her.”
Authorities say the four wounded were all men. One was in critical condition at a Buffalo hospital Saturday afternoon. Two were in stable condition and one was in good condition.
‘In a panic’
Tommy Dates, 35, of Buffalo, said he was at the bar area of the restaurant with his friends when he noticed a party had broken up. He said people started leaving the restaurant but rushed back inside a few minutes later.
“A lot of people were real upset, just trying to get out of the way,” Dates said at the scene about two hours after the shootings. “Everyone was in a panic.”
Three covered bodies lay in front of the restaurant for several hours, one of them on the sidewalk across the street. About 20 people stood behind yellow crime scene tape, some trying to console grief-stricken relatives and friends.
“Nobody knows why,” Martin said. “Somebody else was just shooting in a crowd.”
Glass at a subway stop across the street and the office window next to the Main Street restaurant were shattered during the shooting.
Update August 15
The man who’d been arrested in the four shooting deaths outside a restaurant in Buffalo, N.Y., early yesterday could still be re-arrested if authorities change their minds.
But prosecutors say they decided to drop the charges against Keith Johnson based on photos and witness statements. A prosecutor says the evidence didn’t support the charges against Johnson. He told a judge, “I’m not sure he did it.” Johnson is still being held on a parole violation.
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My Take: The man must have lost his mind to start shooting like that. One thing is for sure he is going to need a good Philadelphia PA criminal attorney, Monmouth County criminal defense lawyer or even a Bucks County criminal lawyer to get him out of this mess. They may not be able to, but they will try. To be honest, I would rather hear about someone who needs a Philadelphia civil litigation lawyer or even a Monmouth County DUI Attorney then someone needing a criminal attorney.
The reason is very simple, because if somebody needs a “criminal” lawyer, it usually means somebody has suffered in one way or another. But if somebody needs Philadelphia criminal lawyers if convicted somebody’s probably lost their life or most of their belongings. Don’t get me wrong, lawyers are good thing to have around when you need one, is just that people don’t want to need them.
Nobody wants to call on new jersey divorce lawyer either, but they have to when there is nothing else that can be done to save a marriage. But at least nobody’s lost a life or been injured because of a criminal act. Although, a Bergen County divorce attorney may take one parties possessions, but that is not considered stealing at least not according to the law.
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