Springfield police report gun violence has subsided in wake of shootings that took life of Sheldon Innocent, injured 3 others

It's not clear when a suspect arrested in Brooklyn Saturday will be returned to Springfield for arraignment.

Trevin Smith

SPRINGFIELD – Gun violence has abated here in wake of the Saturday shootings which took the life of a 24-year-old Wilbraham man and saw the wounding of three others, including a city police officer and state trooper.

“I am telling the public they have no reason to batten down the hatches,” Police Sgt. John M. Delaney said.

Meanwhile, it’s not yet clear when a suspect arrested Wednesday in Brooklyn in connection with the Saturday shootings will be brought back for arraignment.

Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni said Thursday morning he believes that Trevin Smith, 30, of 79 Penrose St., is still being held by authorities in New York City.

Two Springfield police officers, including one who escaped serious injury from a bullet thanks to his protective vest, remain on administrative leave.

A state trooper who also escaped serious injury thanks to his vest, also remains on administrative leave.

Delaney said the department plans to hold a debriefing session next week for the officers, EMTs and dispatchers involved in the Saturday shootings.

Smith surrendered peacefully to officers at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Mastroianni, at Chicopee High School for a safe driver program, said he did not know if Smith was going to waive extradition.

Police said Smith fled Springfield to family in Brooklyn after authorities there issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of being an accessory after the fact in the shooting death of Innocent.

Innocent was fatally shot while waiting to get a haircut inside Bill Brown’s House of Beauty and Barbershop on State Street and the unnamed barber was critically injured.

The suspected shooter, Tamik Kirkland, an escapee from the minimum security prison in Shirley, was himself critically injured a short time later in a shootout with police at Cambridge and Burr streets. .

That shootout began when police forced open a car trunk that they suspected Kirkland was hiding in. Kirkland opened fire on police, hitting the city police officer and trooper, while he was still prone in the trunk, Delaney said. The suspect was shot six times.

Kirkland, 25, remains in stable condition at Baystate Medical Center. Mastroianni’s office has said that Kirkland will be arraigned as soon as his condition permits.

Delaney said that Kirkland and Smith are affiliated with a city gang. He declined, however, to name which one.

“These guys change gang affiliations like most people change their socks,” Delaney said, adding that Kirkland himself is believed to have been a member of several gangs within the city at varying times.

Delaney described the wounded barber as an innocent victim and has declined to release his name. “He is a victim and that (would be) adding fuel to the fire,” he said.

The Associated Press on Monday quoted an anonymous police official close to the investigation as saying the target was the barber, not Innocent.

The official said the barber is related to a suspect involved in the April 23 shooting on Ringgold Street that injured Kirkland’s mother and another woman. No arrest has been made in that shooting.

Kirkland escaped from MCI-Shirley two days later.

As part of the ongoing investigation, police are seeking to determine whether Kirkland had been involved in a flurry of gun violence that occurred within the city after his escape from prison.

“We had the feeling that once Saturday was over it was going to subside and it did,” Delaney said.