One injured, car crashes into home after early Monday shooting in Elyria

One person was injured in a shooting early Monday morning that left dozens of bullet casings scattered across the ground and a car crashed into a home on Washington Avenue in Elyria. It was the third shooting in the city in just three days, and the second to involve an injury. Elyria Police Chief James Welsh said that officers responded to gunfire sometime after 2 a.m. and arrived to find a vehicle leaving the area. Police attempted to stop the vehicle, but it fled briefly before crashing into the garage of a home farther down Washington Avenue. At least two people that were inside the vehicle were arrested, and firearms were taken from the vehicle by police. One person was injured in the shooting, but Welsh said their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. Welsh said that police are in the early stages of the investigation and are still piecing together where different parts of the incident took place. None of those arrested have been identified by police. "Officers responded quickly to the scene, were able to locate a suspect vehicle and made a couple of arrests and recovered some weapons from the scene," Welsh said Monday. "We have a lot of people identified at this point, but the investigation is still ongoing and we will be able to release more as appropriate information becomes available." Monday's shooting followed two other shootings on Saturday, one in the early morning and one in the early evening. Welsh said that investigators believe the shooting Saturday morning was an isolated incident, but police are still working to determine whether the other two shootings are related. Welsh said that the recent spate of gun violence was troubling to him, and even more so because so many of those involved were young men and even minors. "School just ended, and a lot of these suspects involved — and the victims for that matter — are in their late teens and early 20s, so that is problematic for us," Welsh said. "Anytime we have shootings in neighborhoods, and particularly in broad daylight, that is a problem that we recognize and we want to do everything we can to stop it. That is first to identify suspects, make an arrest and successfully prosecute, but also increase our presence in the neighborhoods so citizens feel that they are safe in their homes and in their yards." In each of the two shootings on Saturday, two minors were arrested. Over the course of the past three days, two people have been injured in shootings, at least 10 people have been arrested and seven guns have been recovered by police. "I want people to know that we take this reckless behavior seriously and will do everything in our power to stop it," Welsh said. "But, I also want people to know that these were not random shootings, these people knew each other and the shootings were targeted. We do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the community, and I don't want people to feel like they are not safe in their homes and neighborhoods." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.