The accused gunman in two New Orleans East shootings targeted members of a Plum Orchard family — first firing on a 22-year-old man and his toddler son in January, and then shooting the 22-year-old’s stepfather in March, according to arrest documents.
Jermaine Sandifer, 19, was booked last week with attempted second-degree murder in the March shooting, which left the stepfather bleeding “profusely” from several gunshot wounds, Sandifer’s arrest documents state.
The stepfather told investigators that his stepson and Sandifer had been in several “altercations” in the past, according to Sandifer’s arrest documents, sworn by NOPD Detective Shonndell Fields. The documents did not include details on the dispute between the two men but cited the Jan. 22 shooting as one of several incidents in which police were called.
During interviews with detectives, the 34-year-old stepfather said he had just parked in his driveway around 5:30 a.m. March 2 and was getting out of his vehicle when two men exited a white Nissan car parked nearby. shattered glass from the vehicle’s windows, said NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney. The shooter, later identified as Sandifer, was driving a white Nissan Versa, police said.
Sandifer was initially thought to be the victim in the shooting, as he arrived at a local hospital with “an apparent gunshot wound to the stomach,” according to NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney. However, detectives ultimately determined Sandifer had acted as the perpetrator and fired on the victim’s vehicle. The exact cause of Sandifer’s injury remains undetermined, Looney said.
Sandifer was booked Feb. 16 with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of negligent injuring and illegal use of a weapon in connection with the January shooting. Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Albert Thibodeaux set his bond at $8,000, court records show.
It’s not clear when Sandifer got out of jail but two weeks after his arrest, investigators believe he and another gunman opened fire on the 22-year-old’s stepfather outside of his home on Wilson Avenue in Plum Orchard.
During interviews with detectives, the 34-year-oldstepfather said he had just parked in his driveway around 5:30 a.m. March 2 and was getting out of his vehicle when two men exited a white Nissan car parked nearby.
Both men began firing at the stepfather, who ran toward his front door amid a “rapid succession of gunshots,” according to Sandifer’s arrest warrant.
Shot several times, the stepfather scrambled back to his vehicle upon realizing that his children were home and could be harmed if he went inside. As the stepfather hid in the front part of the SUV, the two gunmen approached on either side of the vehicle and continued to fire, striking the vehicle, arrest documents say.
Investigators later found over 40 spent shell casings at the scene, trailing from the shooters’ parking spot on Wilson Avenue to the victim’s SUV, which had bullet holes on both the driver’s and passengers’ sides and in both rear and front windshields. Bullets also struck the stepfather’s house, according to Sandifer’s arrest warrant.
After the gunfire stopped, the stepfather went into his home, where his children tended to him.
Responding officers found the stepfather on a sofa in his living room, bleeding heavily. He had been struck twice in his lower body and once in the foot, resulting in a “substantial amount of blood” on the living room floor and inside of his SUV. He was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, Fields wrote in arrest documents.
Sandifer was booked April 16 in the March shooting, after a witness identified him as the gunman from a photographic lineup. Police have not said whether any other suspects have been identified in the shooting.
Along with the attempted murder charge, Sandifer is accused of two counts of aggravated criminal damage to property and one count of discharging a firearm during a violent crime in the March shooting.
Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry E. Cantrell set Sandifer’s bond at $100,000, including $75,000 for the attempted murder charge. Sandifer, represented by private defense attorney Eusi Phillips, also signed a non-domestic stay-away order, Orleans Parish court records show.
As of Tuesday night, Sandifer was no longer in jail, according to online jail records.
Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.
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