Criminal charges have been dropped against a 43-year-old man who was arrested after a Memorial Day weekend shooting that wounded three people near Shoreline Village in Downtown Long Beach.
The shooting happened around 10:50 p.m. on May 25, after a group of people got into an argument for unknown reasons near a boat docked just south of East Shoreline Drive, according to Long Beach police.
A pregnant woman told officers she was eating at Yard House with her boyfriend when two bullets grazed her face and abdomen, according to court records.
Another victim, a 14-year-old boy, told officers he was eating a funnel cake when two bullets struck him in the right leg, resulting in a fracture. A third victim took himself to a hospital for treatment of two non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to his left leg.
After the shooting, police chased a 40-foot boat that matched what witnesses and surveillance video spotted leaving the scene, according to a search warrant filed in Long Beach Superior Court.
Once officers found the boat, they arrested its driver, Joshua Eduardo Jones, a 43-year-old resident of Apple Valley.
During a search of the boat, officers found a silver and black “Glock style” handgun without a serial number in a cabinet, according to police and a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Jones told officers his son and several of his son’s friends had been involved in a dispute earlier that evening and “believed one of them may have placed the firearm on his boat,” court records show.
Jones also told officers that his son’s friends briefly boarded the boat after the shooting, but he ordered them to get off.
At a May 28 arraignment, Jones was charged with two felonies: being a felon in possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.
In early June, those charges were dismissed. A spokesperson for the DA’s office said the charges were dropped because “there was insufficient evidence to prove” that Jones knew the gun was on board.
Police did not specify how many people were involved in the shooting, but said the group included men and teenage boys. No other arrests have been reported.
Court records show that officers found six bullet casings from two different guns on a dock southwest of the Shoreline Pedestrian Bridge.
A motive for the crime remains under investigation.
The incident near Shoreline Village came about a month after another high-profile shooting in a crowded tourist area that killed a 21-year-old man outside the Long Beach Grand Prix. Police announced in May that they arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of murder in connection with that shooting.
Shootings overall, however, have declined this year.
In a memo last week, LBPD Chief Wally Hebeish said shootings in Long Beach hit a five-year low between January and June.
This year, the city logged just 133, down from 188 last year and under the five-year average of 187.