One man was hospitalized in critical condition and another is being held in Berks County Prison after a daylight shooting Tuesday during a fight outside a northern Reading convenience store, city police said.
Police were initially called at 1:24 p.m. for a report of a fight. Subsequent emergency calls indicated shots were fired.
According to investigators:
All involved in the incident fled before police arrived. A short time later, police learned that a male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds arrived at the Reading Hospital emergency entrance by private vehicle.
The victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and torso and a gunshot wound to the groin.
He was intubated by trauma center staff and police were told he was in critical condition.
Officers obtained security camera footage of the parking lot incident.
It shows a Honda sedan with multiple occupants arriving about 1:10 p.m. and parking on the west side of the lot. Investigators later learned the shooting victim was among the occupants, but at the time no one was seen leaving the car.
A few minutes later, a Nissan sedan arrived and parked at the gas pumps. The man later identified as the shooting suspect, Vladimir Vargas-Perez, 21, of Reading, exits the front passenger side and a female exists from the driver’s seat.
Vargas-Perez enters the store and buys a tobacco product.
A second male exits the rear driver side of the Nissan and approaches the Honda. He appears to be speaking to the occupants through the passenger side window.
Another male exits the rear passenger seat of that car about the same time Vargas-Perez leaves the store. Also at this time, the victim exits the rear passenger seat of the Honda, and yet another male enters the picture from the opposite side.
Vargas-Perez joined the group outside the Honda. There appears to be a verbal exchange between various members of the gathering.
About 1:20 p.m., an unidentified male lunges at Vargas-Perez and tries to punch him. They grapple for a minute as others in the group watch or try to separate them.
The two eventually separate. Vargas-Perez walks to the car near the gas pumps but stops short and continues to argue with the male with whom he had fought.
The victim blocks Vargas-Perez and a struggle between them ensues. This time Vargas-Perez is seen holding a handgun.
The victim drops to the ground then gets up. Vargas-Perez continues to point the gun and fire at the male he had fought earlier.
The victim, though wounded, runs toward Spring Street and gets into a van driven by a passerby, who drives him to the hospital.
Both cars leave the area.
City police received numerous hits for the suspect vehicle, the Nissan, on the license late reader system. It showed the car traveled northbound on North Fifth Street into Muhlenberg Township immediately after the shooting and wound up in the Cherokee Ranch housing development near Temple.
A Muhlenberg Township police officer spotted the Nissan at a house on Wilshire Road.
A witness told police that the occupants of the car entered a home in the 500 block of Las Vegas Drive.
A Reading policeman went to that residence and knocked on the door. Vargas-Perez answered. The officer immediately recognized him from the store video footage.
Vargas-Perez was detained. He and three others inside the home were transported to City Hall for interviews.
Vagas-Perez agreed to give a statement. He said he had been carrying a 9 mm gun in his waistband. During the fight, the weapon dislodged and slipped into his pants leg.
He said he had no intention of shooting anyone but was only trying to reposition the gun so it was in his waistband. Someone called out, “He has a gun, let’s take it from him.”
Several members of the other group, including the male who would be the shooting victim, tried to pull the gun from his waistband. He said it discharged, striking the victim in the lower portion of his body.
He said, however, that he continued to fire the weapon at the male from the Honda as that group fled.
Police got a search warrant for the Las Vegas Drive home and found the gun under the refrigerator.
Vargas-Perez was jailed lieu of $150,000 bail to await a hearing after arraignment Tuesday night before District Judge Kim L. Bagenstose in Reading Central Court.
Vargas-Perez of the first block of South Third Street faces charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.