Suspects in shooting arrested

Meadowbrook buildings evacuated as police make move

By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON — The apprehension of two Springfield residents who police believe were involved in a shooting in Springfield Thursday night required a state police STOP team and resulted in the evacuation of four Meadowbrook Apartment buildings Friday afternoon.

According to Police Chief Russell P. Sienkiewicz, at 3 p.m., local and state police officers assigned to the Northwestern district attorney’s office learned that Jonathan W. Mitchell, 23, and Shaniqua Harris-Thomas, 21, were inside Building 27 at the Bridge Street apartment complex.

After an unsuccessful attempt to get the pair to surrender, local and state police taped off the area surrounding the building and escorted the some 60 residents living in buildings 25, 26, 27 and 28 to the complex’s Community Room.

At 5:30 p.m., a state police STOP team entered the apartment they believed the two were hiding in and arrested Mitchell and Thomas without incident.

Jacki Kaplanger, who has lived in a second-story unit in Building 28 for almost three years, said she was making dinner when a police officer ordered her to leave her apartment so she “wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“When you hear that from a police officer, it’s scary,” Kaplanger said, adding that when her current lease expires at the complex she plans to move to Florida and away from what she feels has become an unsafe neighborhood.

“This is just not for me anymore,” Kaplanger said. “We have a lot of children that live here. It’s getting to the point where they can’t play outside because it just isn’t safe.”

Springfield police obtained an arrest warrant for the pair Friday morning in connection with a shooting on Franklin Street that left a 23-year-old woman with a gunshot wound in her back.

Witnesses reportedly told police that the shooting victim was walking with friends near a Springfield park at 3 p.m. Thursday when Harris-Thomas jumped from her car and punched another woman several times in the face as Mitchell watched, according to published reports.

After the altercation, the two reportedly returned to their vehicle and as they drove off, Mitchell allegedly leaned out of the passenger window and fired a single shot, striking the victim in the back, according to published reports. It was unclear whether the shooting victim was the woman who was first assaulted.

According to release, Mitchell was arrested on charges of assault to murder with a firearm, assault and battery, and carrying a firearm without a permit, among other charges filed by the Springfield Police Department; Thomas was arrested on a charge of threatening to commit a crime.

Both are expected to be arraigned in Northampton District Court today.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.