MADERA – The Madera Police Department is asking for the public’s help with two shootings that took place in Madera this last weekend. The first shooting occurred on the 1500 block of West Third Street near Willis Avenue. The victims were soliciting door to door when they were hit with bird shot from an unknown suspect. They were transported to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno with non-life threatening injuries.
A second shooting that claimed the life of a sixteen year old boy took place on Sunday in an alley way on the 200 block of South A Street and East Sixth Street near downtown Madera. Officers were dispatched to the area around 5:30pm with reports of a shooting involving a male juvenile. However when police arrived, there was no victim to be found.
A group of unknown individuals drove the victim to Madera Community Hospital following the shooting where they dropped him off for treatment and fled the scene. The juvenile was later rushed to Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries.
This is the third homicide of 2017. Madera Police Department Detectives and the Special Investigations Unit responded and began actively investigating this incident. This appears to be an isolated incident, unrelated to the shooting near West Third and Willis Streets on Saturday.
The victim is a resident of the City of Madera and he has been identified as Madera High School student Isaiah McGuire (16). Police say they have had numerous contacts with the victim and his older brother in the past and say this shooting is possibly gang-related.
Madera Police Detectives and the Special Investigations Unit are conducting interviews of potential witnesses. Police are facing a lot of challenges with this case. They need the public's help to find the suspects who shot and killed the teen, along with people who dropped the victim off at the hospital and disappeared. Detectives believe there are several witnesses to the shooting, however at this time none of them are cooperating.
The teen’s parents are not only grieving the loss of their sixteen year old son, a source close to the family has told us their second son is now in custody at the Madera County Juvenile Hall. Following the shooting the older brother was arrested following a short vehicle chase with MPD where he and three others ran from the police. All four were arrested and booked into juvenile hall. Because all four are juveniles we are not releasing their names.
Lt. Gino Chiaramonte of the Madera Police Department said, "There are numerous people who were witness to this crime yet we have no on-scene witnesses that are willing to give information. We're working on any surveillance cameras. We're retrieving the footage and piecing all the actions together."
The Special Investigations Unit will also be conducting extra enforcement throughout the week to discourage any additional violence.
If anyone witnessed this incident or has information regarding this shooting call the Madera Police Department at 559-675-4248, or Crime Stoppers at 559-498-STOP. As always, callers can remain anonymous and information that leads to an arrest may lead to a cash reward from Crime Stoppers.
A GOFUNDME Account has been set up for the family of Isaiah McGuire
