Erie was rocked in recent years by a spate of shootings that authorities said were fueled by suspected beefs between gangs and involved juvenile and young adult victims and suspects.
In a number of those cases, according to city police, numerous gunshots were fired at houses and vehicles in neighborhoods in suspected shootouts or as retaliation for other shootings in the city.
While a number of arrests have been made in those cases, which police credit in part for leading to a significant drop in shootings and other gun-related incidents so far this year, city police detectives are still working to resolve some of those earlier incidents.
The ongoing probe of two notable shootings, from August 2022 and January 2023, led to the recent filing of criminal charges against a 23-year-old Erie man.
Dashawn D. Lofton Jr. was taken into custody on Wednesday morning and was later arraigned on charges related to a shooting in the 300 block of West 22nd Street on Aug. 1, 2022, and a shooting in the 200 block of Poplar Street on Jan. 9, 2023.
Lofton was also arraigned Wednesday on charges filed by the Pennsylvania State Police, who accuse Lofton of selling two guns tied to the West 22nd Street shooting days after that incident.
"It shows we're serious about the gun violence," Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny said Friday of the investigations that led to the filing of charges against Lofton. "We're targeting individuals and doing everything we can to bring these people to justice."
Lofton was placed in the Erie County Prison with bond set at $25,000 on each of the three cases. A lawyer for him was not listed on his criminal docket sheets.
West 22nd Street shooting
Erie police accuse Lofton of being involved in the shooting in the 300 block of West 22nd Street, which was reported shortly before 2 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2022. Officers who responded to the area learned that some houses and a vehicle were struck by gunfire, and they located 56 shell casings of different caliber rifles and handguns, according to information in Lofton's criminal complaint.
Investigators wrote in the affidavit of probable cause that video from a Ring doorbell in the neighborhood showed eight people walking down the street before the shots were fired, and then running from the area.
On Aug. 12, 2022, Erie police learned from a state police trooper that a gun was reportedly purchased from Lofton in an undercover investigation. Twelve days later, Erie police learned from the trooper that a second gun was purchased from Lofton, according to information in the affidavit.
One of the guns was reported stolen in Erie, according to information in the state police criminal complaint.
Testing on the guns found that 12 of the 56 shell casings recovered at the scene of the West 22nd Street shooting were matched to one of the guns that state police bought in the undercover investigation, and three of the recovered casings were matched to the other purchased gun, according to information in the affidavit.
Erie police charged Lofton with 64 offenses in the West 22nd Street shooting, including multiple felony counts of aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure. State police charged Lofton with 21 offenses, including felony counts of illegal sale or transfer of a firearm and possession of a firearm prohibited.
The investigation into the West 22nd Street shooting is ongoing, a city police investigator said Friday.
Poplar Street shooting
Erie police accuse Lofton of being involved in a shooting that took place in the 200 block of Poplar Street on the late afternoon of Jan. 9, 2023. Police reported at the time that responding officers recovered 16 spent 9mm casings and found at least one vehicle damaged by gunfire, and they suspected that two groups were shooting at each other at the time.
A bullet hole was also found in the garage door of a residence, according to information in the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint against Lofton in that case.
One witness to the shooting reported seeing a male wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt being shot at by another male who was chasing him before the male in the gray hooded sweatshirt got into a white sport-utility vehicle. Another witness told police a male in a white or gray hooded sweatshirt was shooting at two other males before the other males chased him back to a white vehicle, according to information in the affidavit.
Police later located the white vehicle, detained its driver and found a bullet hole in the passenger side of the vehicle, according to the affidavit. Fingerprints found in the vehicle included prints identified as belonging to Lofton, the investigator wrote.
The accused driver of the white vehicle, Kanye K. Cooley, was charged in the case. He pleaded guilty in February to a felony count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in prison, according to court records.
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Lofton faces charges including felony counts of attempted aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in the Poplar Street shooting.
Lofton is scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearings in the three cases in August.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com . Follow him on X @ETNhahn .
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie police charge city man in 2 shootings, say guns seized by state police connected to 1
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