A series of six unsolved weapons violations throughout Madison plagued the city over the weekend, according to the Madison Police Department.
The first occurred on the 1800 block of Helene Parkway around 6:30 Friday night. Officers recovered bullet casings and arrested one of three suspects after a foot chase. MPD believes one suspect was shooting at another, and both suspects escaped in vehicles.
Officers do not believe the act was random, according to the incident report. The arrested suspect, Malcolm Whiteside, tried to ditch a gun, but his role in the shooting is not yet clear to officers. Whiteside was arrested on charges of felon possession of a firearm, possession of heroin and possession of THC. Two buildings and a vehicle were shot.
Two “shots fired” reports followed that incident early Saturday morning. The first happened on the southwest side and no damage or injuries occurred. Officers only recovered a single bullet casing before the second shots fired was reported around 2 a.m., and found a single bullet hole in the apartment from which the call came.
A knife-related incident occurred around 9 a.m. Saturday. A 20-year-old woman on the south side threatened to kill a group of victims before fleeing the scene on foot.
Around the same time Saturday, two suspects fired one round at a person on Monterey Drive. This incident also did not appear to be random and the investigation is ongoing, according to the report.
The last weapons violation of the weekend happened around 3 a.m. Sunday. An adult woman was sleeping when a bullet entered through the exterior and struck her bedroom door. This incident was the only one officers believed was random.
The five gun incidents in one weekend came nearly two months after Madison Mayor Paul Soglin condemned state preemption of local government in a press conference, in regards to gun control.
“An area where we are preempted by state law and that has to do with firearms. Last week we had the sad, tragic death of one of our residents in a situation that clearly ought to be covered by a waiting period, a cooling off period, in regards to the purchase of a firearm,” Soglin said in early February, referring to the murder of Caroline Nosal.
All the incidents remain unsolved and are under investigation by MPD. No injuries were reported in relation to any of the incidents.
