News Editor

April 25, 2000 10 PM

A dive team from the Pike County Sheriff’s Department dragged an area of the lagoon on the Troy State University campus yesterday searching for evidence in a Brundidge shooting.

Brundidge Police Chief Moses Davenport said the Brundidge Police Department received a call between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday, April 20 that shots were fired on East Troy Street near the old Brundidge Police Department.

"When the officers arrived, they couldn’t find anyone," Davenport said. "A passerby told the officers that the suspect left the scene running."

Davenport said he heard nothing else about the shooting until a phone call was received from Edge Regional Medical Center about a gunshot victim in the emergency room.

"I went to the hospital and there was a 17-year-old male who had a gunshot wound to the left chest area," Davenport said. "He was transported to Flowers Hospital in Dothan."

Davenport said the police later arrested a 16-year-old suspect in connection with the shooting. The suspect said the victim and others began shooting at him first, and the suspect told police he started shooting back, said Davenport. The suspect said that others were involved in the shooting, Davenport said.

The suspect, who is being held in the Pike County Jail, said he threw the weapon in the lagoon at Troy State,. He told police that his gun was not the weapon that injured the victim, Davenport said.

"We don’t know what kind of weapon was used because it has not been retrieved and the bullet has not been returned from the victim," Davenport said. "The suspect said it was a .380 but we are still not sure."

Davenport said he called the Pike County Sheriff’s Department and requested its dive team search the lagoon. The divers, Troy Johnson and Deslie Galloway, searched the lagoon for a few hours, using two oxygen tanks each, but came up empty handed.

Davenport said he believes the victim is still hospitalized in Dothan with non-life-threatening injuries. Reports indicate he may be paralyzed from the waist down. Davenport would not release the victim’s name.

The incident is still under investigation by the Brundidge police.