The scene outside Los Amigos Sunday afternoon, April 3, after law enforcement authorities were finished looking for casings.
HARRISBURG, Ill. - The site of a Harrisburg bar long known for violence came back to haunt the most recently-sited bar at that location early this morning (Sunday, April 3).
Known throughout the area as the place to go to get into a fistfight or some knifeplay, Poor Boys biker bar on Raymond Street in Harrisburg was shut down without warning a couple of years back, only to reopen as Los Amigos not too long thereafter.
While the place had its share of minor incidents, it was nothing like Poor Boys...until early this morning.
According to the small amounts of information that have leaked out about the situation, a physical altercation broke out inside the bar between Jared Crawford, 28, and Vearn Guyton (this is preliminary; we're working to clarify whether this was for certain Guyton Jr., age 55, or Guyton III, age 34 as of yesterday).
One of the two, Crawford or Guyton, was the victim of a broken beer bottle being swung at him while inside the bar.
Somehow, the situation spilled out into one of the parking lots, and gunplay erupted; according to information we've received, Crawford pulled a weapon and allegedly fired upon Guyton; however, Guyton, who is a Concealed Carry cardholder, pulled his weapon and fired back, hitting Crawford in the upper leg; all of this occurred at a few minutes before 1 a.m.
Crawford was taken to the hospital in Harrisburg, then air-evac'd out to a hospital out of the area; we're working on those specifics.
It's our understanding that there were more than six rounds that were fired, but less than 10. Authorities were on the scene all the way through this afternoon collecting casings and examining whether any rounds struck the homes adjacent to the bar and parking lot.
As far as we understand, no one has yet been taken into custody or charged.
Right after this photo was taken on West Towle last September, the man in the dark hoodie, Byron Godsey, was seated in the back of the squad and it drove off. Jared Crawford was reported to have been involved in that incident in some capacity.
Regular readers will recall that Crawford was one of those involved in the alleged gunfight that occurred this past September on West Towle Street on the north side of Harrisburg. That one was rumored to have stemmed from a ridiculous series of gripings that began on Facebook and escalated. No one was injured, nor arrested, in that incident, either.
Xzavier Gibbs
Prior to that, however, he was also said to have been in the big shootout in Baker Street south of the Bypass New Year's Eve 2014, in which Bobby Evans was hit and left a paraplegic. Xzavier Gibbs was arrested in that case, but is said to have NOT been working alone.
The problem, as it turns out with these shootouts, is that no one will talk. Authorities know the players, and all the peripherals, and try to pin down who/what/when/where/how, but everyone clams up and no one can get anywhere with it. As an example, police activity reported at the Huck's store on Poplar early this morning was reported to us subsequent to the shooting event at Los Amigos. That, it turned out, pertained to looking for Crawford...cops were pretty sure he'd "gone to ground" at his grandma's house, which is located in that vicinity not far from Huck's.
Beth Montfort
The cops are, unfortunately, being forced to be uncharacteristically quiet on this shooting, likely due to the latest shakeup on the city council, wherein former Streets and Alleys commissioner Beth Montfort was put in charge of Police and Fire, and all she wants to do is report the "happy" news pertaining to cops and crime in Harrisburg...of which there's a dearth. If there was any bright spot to the situation early this morning, it's that there were actually TWO police officers on duty at the time of the shooting (Kenny Shires and Curt Hustedde), unlike the recent roster of only one for the entire city of Harrisburg, as we outlined in this article in the February-March issue. That situation has been exacerbated by the stingy city council, which doesn't seem to understand that in a city the size of Harrisburg, one cop on duty due to a budgetary issue is literally insanity.
Our support is firmly behind our cops in our second home, the city of Harrisburg. The citizens need to be aware that this is the kind of thing that's going to keep happening throughout town as the weather warms up and no one seems inclined to slow down their gang activity, which always and without fail picks up during the nicer Spring/Summertime part of the year. Watch yourselves, Harrisburg...the wannabe thugs are out and about (except for Crawford...at least, for awhile.)
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