BREAKING NEWS: Fifth Suspect Surrenders to Police

November 17, 2008 • By Erik Landers, The Breeze
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UPDATE: The fifth suspect in the Hunters Ridge Shooting, 21-year-old Ricky Parrish of Ruckersville, turned himself in Tuesday night. He has been charged with assault and battery and gang participation.

Parrish joins Gregory Baker, 20; Demonds Parrish, 19; and Jahmaine Faqiri, 18, all of Ruckersville, in custody. The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Zackery Turner of Charlottesville, was also arrested late last week.

The victim, Reginald “Shay” Nicholson, 19, was still in critical condition Monday, according to family friend Cindy Wood.

“The pressure in his brain hasn’t gone down much so they cannot remove the bullet but the doctors and all of us are just taking it on day at a time,” Wood said Monday through an e-mail.

Previous Story, printed in Nov. 10 issue of The Breeze can be read below.

Authorities have arrested a fourth person in connection with Sunday morning’s shooting in Hunters Ridge. The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Zackery Turner of Charlottesville, was arrested Friday on charges of aggravated malicious wounding, use or display of a firearm in commission of a felony, reckless handling of a firearm and discharge of a firearm in or around a school. If convicted, Turner could face life in prison. Warrants are out for a fifth suspect that the authorities now consider a fugitive.

Turner joins the three suspects arrested on Thursday morning. Those individuals were Gregory Baker, 20, Demonds Parrish, 19, and Jahmaine Faqiri, 18, all of Ruckersville. All three were charged with assault and battery by mob and participation in a gang; Faqiri was also charged with brandishing a firearm.

“These individuals do have the propensity for violence and I want to make sure everyone understands that,” said Lt. Kurt Boshart, HPD’s criminal investigations commander. “Also make no mistake this was a gang-related shooting.”

Authorities pleaded with the community to take gangs more seriously following this case than it has in the past.

“Many times I have come before this community and warned them about gangs, criminal street gangs,” said Marsha Garst, attorney for the commonwealth. “It is a sad day when those predictions have come to fruition.”

Authorities called the open-door parties thrown by students a prime target for gangs.

“We have members from around the area and in the area who come to these parties as an opportunity to party and have fun or do whatever; their intentions are not the same as the students,” Boshart said. “Their intentions are to raise havoc, or what have have you, in the community and student community.”

Garst said a lot of student parties are open-door parties, where anybody and everybody is allowed to go, is not a safe.

“This unfortunate incident and horrific incident shows why it’s not a safe thing to do,” Garst said.

On display at Friday’s press conference was a table of evidence collected in the case. The evidence was gathered through three search warrants conducted in Greene County. Eight pistols, two rifles, one assault rifle, ammunition and bandanas of various colors were on the table. The Harrisonburg Police Department has cooperated with 11 agencies during the investigation.

Shooting victim Reginald “Shay” Nicholson remains in critical condition at the University of Virginia medical center. The hospital stopped releasing information about Nicholson’s status on Tuesday.

“The victim is still alive,” Garst said. “He is clinging to life, and I would just state that our prayers should be with that victim and his family to make sure we don’t lose focus of what’s important.”

Police are open to the possibility that the shooting was connected to the armed robbery in Westport Village that took place about two hours before the shooting.

“We have not closed that case yet,” Boshart said. “We always keep our eyes wide open. We don’t put blinders on and go in one particular direction.”

Despite the four arrests made and a warrant for a fifth suspect, the investigation into the shooting continues.

Contact Erik Landers at landerea@jmu.edu

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One Response to “BREAKING NEWS: Fifth Suspect Surrenders to Police”

JY on November 23rd, 2008 8:41 pm

Marsha Garst needs to get her head on straight. The problem isn’t open door parties. The problem is out of control violent gangs. She is setting up her response which will be to harass people having parties. Her job is to break up the gangs and put violent gangbangers in jail.

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