MASON CITY – Mason City police were dispatched to the North Federal Casey’s gas station Tuesday afternoon at 4:54 p.m. for a report of a shooting.
It has now been said that the victim is Brandon Crawford and that he did not survive. People close to the situation tell NorthIowaToday.com that Crawford belongs to a rap group that performed at the Rose Bowl this past weekend.
Witnesses said there were three shots. The victim was shot in the chest. “The ambulance was there a long time, working on him, they didn’t leave in a hurry,” one bystander said. “I don’t think he made it.” The bystanders said it was two men arguing. Another person said is was an argument over a girl; there was a fist fight and then one of the men got a gun and shot the other man.
Neighbors were out in their yards from Casey’s all the way to the 300 block of North Madison, talking about what happened.
Cops were searching for the weapon in nearby yards; they said they were looking for a semi-automatic hand gun.
The police chased a man wearing a red hat and black tank top who was running from the shooting scene at Casey’s. Cops caught the man, said to be Jamaal J. Leslie, 31, (pictured right; subject is innocent until proven guilty) at the 300 block of North Madison Avenue. Leslie was charged with (707.1,707.2 Murder 1st Degree) and was being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail as of Wednesday morning. As they loaded Leslie into the squad car, a red ambulance raced by on Monroe Avenue, just a block away.
Neighbors in that area called their neighborhood “Crime City” and were not that shocked at what had happened. “You name it, it goes on here,” one woman said. “I saw a man hit in the head with a two-by-four, asking for a ride to the hospital, just the other day.”
Another man said that he saw man hanging on the hood of a speeding car yelling at the driver and occupants. “They turned the corner. I called the cops. I don’t know what came of it.”
Meanwhile, it was said that tempers were running high in the Casey’s neighborhood and more law enforcement was on the way to keep things calm.
