Police evaluate operations at Old Town Square parking garage after weekend shooting
Editor’s note: Police said Thursday that two people had been shot, instead of one. And three people have been arrested. See an updated story here.
Police say they are evaluating operations at the Old Town parking garage after a man was shot there Sunday night.
Police are looking at whether “changes are necessary to ensure everyone’s safety,” Wichita police spokesperson Aaron Moses said in an email Tuesday.
A 20-year-old Wellington man was grazed by a bullet while sitting in a truck in the garage. Police were called at 11:55 p.m. Sunday. The man was treated and released from a hospital.
The shooting comes roughly a year after two people were shot and killed at the garage. After that the second and third floors of the garage were closed to the public for more than a month.
In Sunday’s shooting, the Wellington man was sitting in the passenger side of a red Ford truck when someone opened fire on the truck. It is not known how many people shot at the truck.
Moses said the shooting stemmed from an earlier incident.
“The victim reported that he was involved in an altercation earlier in the evening in Park City, that is believed to be related to the shooting,” Moses said Tuesday afternoon.
Last year, a Wichita couple were found shot and killed on the top floor of the garage on July 27. Josephina Lerma-Dominguez, 20, and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Bryan Lara-Hernandez, had been helping Dominguez’s friend, 20-year-old Zachary Ramirez, jump start his car.
A argument broke out between Lara-Hernandez and Ramirez and escalated into a shoving match. Lara-Hernandez reportedly pulled and pointed a gun at Ramirez and his friends to stop the fight.
The couple got back into their car to leave. Ramirez pulled a gun and fired 14 times into the car, striking Lerma-Dominguez and Lerma-Hernandez.
Ramirez was convicted in April on two counts of first-degree felony murder, two alternative counts of second-degree intentional murder, two counts of battery and one count each of criminal discharge of a weapon and aggravated battery, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Ramirez’s sentencing has not been set yet. He’s facing life in prison plus the possibility of additional time.
Wichita police closed the entrance ramp to the second and third floors sometime between July 27 and Aug. 2 2023. It was reopened on Sept. 9 2023.
This story was originally published September 4, 2024 at 12:28 PM.