UPDATED: Police Investigating Shooting at Newcastle Apartments

East Ridge police are investigating a Wednesday morning shooting that happened at the Newcastle Apartments.

According to Assistant Chief Stan Allen, police were called to the complex at 5700 Roper Street at 5:15 a.m. While en route to the call, officers encountered the victim, Dequan Fuqua, 20, being driven by private vehicle to a hospital. Officials said the man was shot int he forearm, the shoulder, right flank, and was grazed on the chest. He was taken to Erlanger hospital for treatment.

Chief Allen said that once officers arrived at the residence they found shell casings and two vehicles that had bullet holes in them. Chief Allen said three apartments other than Fuqua’s are known to have been struck by bullets during the incident. One of the apartments, he said was unoccupied. Residents were inside the other apartments.

According to a check of Hamilton County Jail records, Fuqua has two arrests in Chattanooga in the last two years on weapons charges. It is not clear if Fuqua is a resident of the apartment complex or was a visitor.

Officials said the investigation is continuing and are asking anyone with information regarding this incident to contact the East Ridge Police Department.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.