A Sunday morning drive-by shooting that wounded a 9-year-old boy on Boudreaux Street is being compared to a shooting that happened in June 2017.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot thinks there is a similarity to last year’s activities of the street gang known as Goons for Life.
By the end of June 2017 arrests were piling up for Eunice Police as they battled a wave of shootings, vehicle thefts and burglaries, which they said stemmed from drug trafficking.
In the 11 a.m. Sunday shooting, Fontenot said, “The child was not the intended target of shooting. Someone in a car was firing their gun at a car, and one round hit the car and two others hit the child.”
He added, “The little boy was walking with three other children, but they weren’t hurt,” the chief said.
On Wednesday, Fontenot said the boy is recovering from gun shots to his wrist and leg.
The wounds were not life-threatening, he said.
Recalling events of a year ago, Fontenot believes there is a connection to the street gang.
He estimates half of the gang is in jail, but the group is trying to rebuild a criminal enterprise based on using juveniles.
“Those turned legal age are probably of no use to the group,” he said.
“Kids do their dirty work,”he said.
The adult leaders needs to recruit more juveniles, he said.
A new law that moves the adult age from 17 to 18 poses a new challenge, he said.
“With that new law we’ll see an increase in juvenile crime. Now, they can go to the age of 17 without the consequence of seeing any jail time,” he said.
On June 6, 2017, a 7-year-old boy, who was not the intended target, was wounded on East Maple Avenue near Golden Seafood.
Hours after that shooting, two men were wounded in a shooting in the 200 block of Minerva Street.
Fontenot linked the June 6 shootings and others that summer to drug trafficking.
