February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The incident occurred in Holyoke, about one hundred miles west of Boston, where this year’s parade attracted as many as 275,000 people, a police spokesperson said.
As the parade was coming to an end, a fight broke out between two rival gangs, La Familia and the Latin Kings.
A punch was thrown and a police officer intervened and separated the groups.
But as they dispersed across the street, one gang member pulled a gun and fired “as many as six to nine shots,” the spokesperson from Holyoke Police Department said.
“He hit two innocent people but these were not serious injuries,” he said. “These were ricochet shots. The only seriously injured person was a gang member shot in the stomach.
This person appears to have been the intended target, police said afterwards.
Officers quickly responded to the incident and managed to control the situation without opening fire, the spokesperson said.
The gunman was charged with assault.
“These are young kids,” the spokesperson continued. “Come springtime, everyone gets a bit stupid.”