Queensborough, Louisiana

From the Shreveport Times of April 22, 2006

Argument over peach tree leads to shooting in Queensborough

Gunfire sends 55-year-old to hospital with 'life-threatening' wounds

An afternoon barbecue on a peaceful street in Queensborough ended in a shooting Friday after two friends argued over a rather common thing.

"They started arguing over a peach tree," Shreveport police Detective Jeff Brown said. "One of them got too close to it."

The shooting was called in just after 1 p.m. Officers were told that 55-year-old Donald Green of the 2400 block of Virginia Avenue had gotten a golf club and was swinging it at an acquaintance, Carter Mitchell, age unavailable, of Virginia Avenue, police Sgt. Jim Taliaferro said. Police were told Mitchell had a gun and fired it several times at Green.

Mitchell was detained by police for questioning but later was released since witness reports strongly suggested he acted in self-defense, Taliaferro said. However, investigation into the shooting continues.

Shreveport Fire Department spokesman Brian Crawford said Green was taken to LSU Hospital in Shreveport. "Paramedics gave his condition as critical -- life-threatening."

The argument and shooting took place at a neat little bungalow on the corner of a quiet, divided block of Virginia Avenue, just north of Willis-Knighton Medical Center, at Stonewall Street. Yellow crime-scene tape closed off the openings of a little wooden fence around the house.

In the bare-dirt yard, a barbecue cooker continued to pump out smoke. A jon-boat and kayak stood on end against a side fence. A woman inside the house looked through the screen door, came out briefly to tend the barbecue cooker then hurried back inside.

"They're friends," neighbor Willie Scott said of Green and Mitchell. Scott lives a few houses down. He said the street is usually quiet.

"We play dominoes around here a lot. "We barbecue, eat and have fish fries. That's what they were doing today."

Scott was the only man standing on the porch who admitted seeing any of the dispute. He said he did not see how it started but witnessed its end.

He said Green staggered to the median dividing Virginia and collapsed. Mitchell walked back to the porch of the house where the shooting occurred then left, Scott said.

"But then he came back and turned himself in," Scott added.