Gangs believed to be involved in shootings, stabbings

On July 3, the Griffin Police Department responded to shooting at the VFW club located on 610 N. 3rd Street in Griffin. There were no injuries reported regarding the shooting. Two days later, during the early morning hours of July 6, the Griffin police Department responded to the Red Door night club located at 551 N. Expressway in reference to a large fight and a stabbing. The victim, Jamel Alston, was life flighted to Atlanta Medical Center and is currently recovering from his injuries. On July 6th, 2014, approximately three hours after the Red Door incident, the Griffin Police Department responded to a shooting at 424 N. 8th Street in Griffin. The shooting was believed to be in direct retaliation of the fight that had just occurred at the Red Door. No injuries were reported as result of the incident. On Monday night, July 7, 2014 the Griffin Police Department responded to a shooting at 739 E. Central Avenue in Griffin. Two females were injured as result of the shooting. They were both treated at the Spalding Regional Medical Center and later released. Late Wednesday night, July 9 and early Thursday morning July 10 the Griffin Police Department and the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office responded to three separate shootings, all within two hours of each other. The first was at approximately 11:50 p.m. on the 9th at 1329 Ridgeview Drive in Spalding County. The second shooting was at approximately 1:30 a.m. on the 10th at 522 and 521 N. 8th Street in the City of Griffin. The third shooting took place at 332 Dale Drive in Spalding County within twenty minutes of the second shooting on N. 8th Street. No injuries resulted from any of the three reported shootings. As of July 11, the Griffin Police Department has made two arrests directly related to the July 6th N. 8th Street shooting and the July 7th E. Central Street shooting. Two additional arrest warrants have been issued with arrests pending at this time. One for the shooting at the VFW on July 3rd and the second for the stabbing that occurred at the Red Door on July 6. It has been determined that all of these incidents are result of disputes between two identified gangs, the ‘Zoo Crew’ and ‘8th Street’. In a collaborative effort to investigate and stop these types of incidents from continuing to occur the Griffin Police Department and the Spalding County Sheriff’s Department have been working together in sharing intelligence and proactively working additional personnel from both agencies in the known areas where these gangs hang out. As result of these efforts that continue, several additional arrests have been made on members of these gangs for unrelated charges. Anyone with additional information regarding any of the aforementioned incidents is strongly encouraged to contact the Criminal Investigations Divisions of the Griffin Police Department and or the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office. All information can remain anonymous.