South Side shooter gets 25-to-life sentence

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - A Syracuse man who fired at a police officer and then held up an entire South Side neighborhood for five hours in August was arraigned on the charge of first degree attempted murder on Wednesday.
 
Aaron Jackson has been indicted on charges that include robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, along with the attempted murder charge.
 
Along with an accomplice, Jermaine Grimes, who acted as a lookout during the incident, Jackson robbed patrons at Omanii's Lemonade Haven in August.
 
When he left the restaurant, he encountered a police officer who had responded to the incident. Jackson fired on officer John Mulhern and ran back inside the building, triggering the day-long standoff.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - An Onondaga County Grand Jury has indicted two men police say were behind a five-hour standoff on Syracuse's South Side in August.

The jury indicted Aaron Jackson, 20, of Syracuse, on charges of attempted murder, robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon. His accomplice, 31-year-old Jermaine Grimes, was indicted on a charge of robbery.

According to the police, Grimes served as a lookout while Jackson robbed a patron at gunpoint in Omanii's Lemonade Haven. A postal worker called police to the incident and Jackson fired on Officer John Mulhern, a 28-year veteran of the Syracuse Police.

Jackson then ran back inside the building, sparking a day-long standoff in which numerous law-enforcement agencies converged on the area surrounding the corner of South and Bissell Avenues.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Syracuse Police have arrested two people in connection with a standoff that occurred on the city's South Side Tuesday afternoon.

Police have charged Aaron Jackson, 20, of Syracuse with attempted murder, robbery, criminal use of a firearm, and criminal possession of a weapon. They have charged Jermaine Grimes, 31, of Syracuse with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Police charged Jackson with attempted murder because he fired on a police officer during the incident.

According to the police, Grimes lived in one of the apartments above Omanii's Lemonade Haven. He and Jackson decided to rob the restaurant. Jackson entered the restaurant with Grimes serving as lookout.

Disguised with a bandanna, Jackson robbed two customers at gunpoint.

A witness alerted Officer John Mulhern to the situation. When the 28-year veteran arrived at the scene, Grimes ran inside the building and fled to his apartment. At the same time, Jackson emerged from the restaurant and fired his gun at Mulhern. Mulhern responded in kind, firing three shots at the Jackson before he could run back inside the building.

Several more detectives working in the area responded to the scene and the building was locked down within one minute.

While upstairs in his apartment, Grimes had changed his clothes. When he tried to walk out the front door just four minutes after the incident, police arrested him.

Jackson also changed his clothes. After getting rid of the gun, Jackson hid under a stairwell for several hours until he realized he was surrounded. He finally surrendered to the police at around 4:30pm.

Police attributed their swift success in finding the suspects to community cooperation. Some 40 residents live in the 16-unit apartment building that houses Omanii's.

The residents were evacuated while the police collected evidence overnight. They were permitted back into the building late Wednesday morning.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Residents of a South Avenue neighborhood are still reeling after a standoff first forced them to stay in their homes, and later forced them out.

For five hours Tuesday, police surrounded a building which contains both the restaurant in which a lone gunman hid, and 16 apartment units.

Resident Jineen Emery was unfazed by the event. Instead, she found it to be exciting when the police finally came to rescue her from the building. "It was exciting…a rush…just cops doing their job," she said. "They were in the right place at the right time."

For another building resident, Dejanna Webb, the experience was harrowing as she worried about herself and the child she is carrying.

"I looked out of my window and saw all of it. I was scared. Really, really scared," said Webb, whose child is due in just a couple of weeks. I was just thinking about my baby."

Dozens of Syracuse police, SWAT, and the county's Bearcat armored vehicle were all called in to look for an armed robber that was hiding somewhere in the building.

When Webb heard shots, she decided to hide in the closet. While hiding, Webb said she started having contractions. "I started having really bad contractions," she said. "I think it was just because of my nerves."

While she hid in the closet, Webb says she talked to her baby, but also talked to her mother and a 911 operator on the telephone. "They were trying to talk me through everything," she said.

Finally, like 40 other residents in the building, Webb was freed from the situation and evacuated from the building. The building remained evacuated overnight while investigators gathered evidence.

Syracuse Police have arrested two people in connection with the standoff.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Residents are not being allowed back into their homes after a standoff that lasted more than five hours Tuesday afternoon. Police evacuated the building during the standoff, and are keeping it empty while they collect evidence.

Early Wednesday morning, police were still stationed at the South Avenue building and had not announced when the apartment building's residents would be allowed to return. Syracuse Police said there will be a news conference regarding the incident at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon, Syracuse Police SWAT team members went through the three-story South Side building room by room in search of a suspect they had been locked in a standoff with.

The standoff began around noon, after an officer on a routine patrol was approached by a witness who notified him of a robbery in progress nearby. When the officer arrived at the Omanii's Lemonade Haven, located on the corner of South Avenue and Bissell Street, he observed a suspect running away. The officer reports the suspect then fired shots at him, and he returned fire, before the suspect holed himself up inside the business. The 16-apartments that were later evacuated shared the building.

Antonio Cordero was working inside Omanii's Lemonade Haven as a cook at the time of the attempted robbery. He says he didn't expect to leave work today thinking about how grateful he is to be alive. "It could have been my last day today, thank god I'm ok and the officer was ok," he said.

Cordero was working in the kitchen when he says he saw a panicked customer jump over the counter. When he looked to the front of the restaurant he says he saw a man wearing a bandana with a gun. "That's when I saw the gunmen collecting money from the ground."

Cordero says he was able to get out from the back of the restaurant to alert someone at a nearby store. He says he then went back to the restaurant. "As I was heading back to the restaurant he pointed the gun at me telling me to back off so I ran around the corner and once I did I saw him run."

Cordero says he then started chasing after the gunmen. "My first instinct was to chase after him and try to stop him, once he shot at me I woke up."

That's when an officer arrived and police say the gunmen fired shots at the officer.

Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler says the suspect fired a number of shots at the first officer that responded, and the officer returned fire. The Chief says, however, that no one was harmed during that exchange or the standoff that followed. "The building is secure and the standoff is officially over with," said Chief Fowler around 6:00 p.m. "We're confident we have the necessary people in custody."

At that time, Chief Fowler also said that the investigation was continuing and a number of suspects still need to be interviewed.

During his press conference, Chief Fowler thanked neighbors for their patience with officers.

Michelle Millette returned home during the standoff, only to find that she couldn't go inside. "I knew something was going on with the apartment building, because I saw it. When I heard it was a standoff, I said it looks like I'm not going home tonight," she said.

The Red Cross says they will offer an overnight shelter at St. Lucy’s Church Hall, located at 425 Gifford Street, to residents of the building's 16 apartments that were displaced by the standoff and subsequent investigation.

Police say they're spending the night interviewing suspects and plant to hold a news conference about this standoff Tuesday morning around 10:30.