Columbus police arrested the mother of a suspect in a Monday shooting where gunfire hit a school bus on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as an accessory to the crime after the fact.
Cassandra Perry, 53, was arrested Wednesday at a residence on the same street, according to a press release from Columbus Police Department. Perry is the mother of Marteze Meeks.
Meeks and Enry Meadows, both 18, were shot at on Monday afternoon by occupants of a dark-colored Dodge Charger driving north on MLK while they were at a residence on the street’s 1500 block, across from the Columbus Housing Authority, CPD Chief Joseph Daughtry told The Dispatch that day. Meeks and Meadows returned fire, hitting the right front tire of a Columbus Municipal School District bus dropping off children nearby.
Meadows was hit in the exchange and was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle for non-life-threatening injuries, Daughtry said Monday. The school bus was carrying 10 elementary school students and the driver, none of whom were injured.
Meadows and Meeks were charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle and discharging a firearm inside the city limits, while the unknown assailants face charges of shooting into an occupied dwelling, Daughtry said.
As of Monday, CPD was still looking for Meeks, along with any leads on the suspects in the Dodge Charger. Columbus Police Department declined to offer any further information on the investigation when talking to The Dispatch Wednesday.
Meeks and Meadows were previously arrested on weapon possession charges following a shooting in July at the 1600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. While both were 17 at the time, each was charged with possessing a firearm while out on felony bond and Meeks was charged with two counts of possession of a stolen firearm.
At the time of the July arrest, Meadows was out on bond on a murder charge for the November 2023 shooting death of Labronze Moore, 17, at the victim’s home on North McCrary Road in East Columbus. He is one of six facing a murder charge in that case.
A grand jury had also indicted Meeks on two aggravated assault charges in Lowndes County, CPD Public Information Officer Bryan Moore told The Dispatch in July.
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