Police questioned a 19-year-old man Thursday in connection with the shooting of two sisters in Denver a day earlier.
Several officers stood outside the home where the man lives in the 3300 block of Jasmine Street on Thursday evening as they waited for a search warrant.
Police detained Mark Marquise Davis, 19, while he was working at the Family Dollar Store on Thursday morning, according to his mother, DeDe Davis. The mother said police also pulled over her 16-year-old son, questioned him and let him go.
Davis said Mark Davis and her younger son were not connected to the shooting because they were playing football all day somewhere else.
“There’s no way they could have been out there,” she said.
She said that police drew their guns as they entered her home earlier in the day without a search warrant and that the guns were pointed at small children she cares for at her house.
Detective John White, a police spokesman, said police entered the house to clear and secure it but did not begin searching. White said police were at the residence because investigative leads brought them there.
Other family members said the two teens were not involved in the shooting.
“Those kids are innocent. These are two innocent families caught up in this,” said Khristanna Haney, the boys’ cousin.
Meanwhile, family members of the two sisters wounded by the gunfire loaded up trucks with furniture and plastic bags Thursday so the girls would not have to return to the apartment complex where they were shot.
“We want to relocate them somewhere else,” said the girls’ uncle, Julio Huerta. “We’re strong. There is a lot of us just packing, basically. We are trying to let the cops do their work.”
Yazmine Sandate, 6, and her sister, Karina Padilla, 14, were upgraded from fair to good condition at Children’s Hospital. Yazmine’s mother supplied The Denver Post with Yazmine’s correct name Thursday, which differed from the one her brother gave Wednesday.
Yazmine was wounded in the leg and Karina in the pelvic area Wednesday afternoon in a drive-by shooting at the Dispersed North East Homes complex in the 2500 block of East 37th Avenue.
The Denver Housing Authority arranged the family’s move to another comparable apartment in the city, said DHA spokeswoman Stella Madrid.
The housing authority is considering adding fencing around each front yard and backyard for the 33 units in the complex. Housing officials are also considering changing the lighting in the area to improve safety.
The neighborhood is a challenge for the housing authority and it tries to work closely with the Police Department’s gang unit to keep it safe, Madrid said.
“It’s tragic when anyone gets hurt or injured in the crossfire,” Madrid said. “Our heart goes out to the family. We are moving them into another property, appreciating the trauma they would be faced with returning to the unit.”
Neighbors complained about the safety of the public-housing complex and said it was an area plagued by gang activity.
The neighborhood tied with three others in the city for the fourth-highest number of homicides in 2004 with four, according to Denver police crime statistics. The area also ranked 19th out of 72 neighborhoods in 2004 for overall crime, statistics show.
Karina’s uncle said doctors had not yet removed the bullet from her pelvic area.
“We are just thankful it was not fatal,” he said. “They did not deserve this at all.”
Police said that the girls were not the intended targets and that the shooting was gang-related. Witnesses said the shots came from a gray 2004 Dodge Stratus and were aimed at a group of young men near Yazmine.
The car was found by police about a mile away in the 3400 block of Forest Street. The car had been reported stolen for several days. Steve Cooper, division chief of patrol, said shell casings were found inside the car.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell contributed to this report.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.