2 held after shooting downtown Fresno homeless with paintballs

NOTE BY NORSE:  The “call in a criminal sleeper” campaign encouraged by the SCPD and, I suspect, by Take Back Santa Cruz, could easily escalate to this kind of Trollbuster Violence, as it did in the past.   When homeless people are casually associated with theft, discarded needles, feces-and-urine, trash, and burglaries, open season on poor people becomes not just okay but valued.  The recent Arm the Homeless campaign (see http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/15/18735243.php ) was a response.

2 held after shooting downtown Fresno homeless with paintballs

By Diana Aguilera – The Fresno Bee
Monday, Apr. 22, 2013 | 11:19 PM Modified Mon, Apr 22, 2013 09:54 PM

Two teenagers were arrested in downtown Fresno Monday after shooting several homeless people with a paintball gun, costing one man the sight in one eye, police said.

Officers went to the area of Fresno and F streets, where two suspects inside a vehicle shot a homeless man with a paintball gun. The two suspects drove in an alley, shot the man and then fled the area, police said.

Shortly after that, the two teenagers shot another homeless man with the paintball gun near Ventura and H streets.

Police located the vehicle at Broadway and San Benito avenues and later arrested a 17-year-old juvenile from Fresno and an 18-year-old man from Bakersfield.

Police learned the pair had shot paintballs two days earlier at a homeless man and woman at Ventura and H streets. According to police, the man was struck in the eye by a paintball, resulting in loss of sight in one eye. The woman reported being struck in the chest.

The two teens were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. Police said they could face mayhem charges, as well.

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