Demetrius Montez Howard
Police have charged Demetrius Montez Howard with a shooting at a Chattanooga gas station in which a woman and her four-year-old daughter were near the line of fire.
Howard, 34, of 4409 Kemp Dr., is charged with attempted first-degree murder, reckless endangerment, possession of a firearm while in the commission of a crime, unlawfully carrying a weapon and vandalism.
In the incident last Dec. 7, a woman said she was attempting to put gas in her vehicle when she saw a short, bald black male, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black coveralls, begin shooting at another black male.
She said the man who was the target of the shooting had his back turned to the shooter.
The woman said the shooter fled on foot northbound on Tunnel Boulevard, while a woman she knew as Jasmine got in a gray pickup truck and went in the same direction. Another witness said the woman in the truck was Jasmine Patillo.
The woman said her young daughter was in the back seat of her car during the gunfire.
She said she was "terrified because she and her daughter were in direct crossfire and immediately fled the scene in her vehicle after watching the shooter flee on foot as the gray pickup truck followed.
She said she later returned - after dropping her daughter off - to find out if anyone had been shot.
Police said the man who was the target in the shooting would not cooperate with them.
However, a woman whose vehicle was damaged by bullets said she would cooperate.