Woman shot in shoulder off Wilcox Boulevard

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Police officers look over a Toyota that was fired on in a drive by shooting Sunday near Roanoke Avenue. The car was hit in the rear by several bullets, and the driver, who was shot in the shoulder, was taken to Erlanger.

In the aftermath of a drive-by shooting Sunday off Wilcox Boulevard, officers and witnesses stood behind yellow police tape roping off the victim's gray Toyota, punctured by several bullet holes and parked a few yards away from train tracks illuminated by the setting sun.

Neighbors huddled on the sidewalk, watching warily.

"I know I don't want to be in anything like that again," said a woman whose car was punctured by gunfire.

The woman, who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation, said she was driving her cousin home from church when a bullet struck her car from behind. The bullet hit just below the rear window. Any higher and it would have wounded the passenger, the woman said.

She said her cousin shouted at her to turn the car, and then she saw two men in a cream-colored Toyota behind her were shooting at the car ahead of her.

Police said Sierra Holland, 24, was shot in the shoulder and was taken to Erlanger hospital. Her injuries were not life-threatening, Chattanooga police spokesman Sgt. Wayne Jefferson said. He described the suspects' car as a tan four-door.

He said police were called to the 2300 block of Ocoee Street at 6:15 p.m.

While police investigated the shooting scene, a woman who lives nearby walked to a group watching from the sidewalk.

Sobbing, she said she and her family had been having a barbecue when the shots rang out.

"The shooters came down through there shooting. I grabbed the kids and the grandkids," she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Chattanooga Police Department at 423-698-2525 or Crime Stoppers at 423-698-3333.