Less than a week after three gunshot wound victims showed up at a local hospital early Sunday morning following a shooting at a northwest Lincoln apartment complex, police have arrested one of the victims for his alleged role in the shooting, authorities said.
Tramel Patterson, 35, arrived at the hospital with two gunshot wounds at around 3 a.m. Sunday, as police were dispatched to an apartment complex near North 14th and Adams streets on a report of shots fired, Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said at the department’s media briefing Thursday morning.
Prosecutors on Thursday charged Patterson with five felonies, including discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle and two counts of second-degree assault.Â
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In court records filed Wednesday, investigators identified Patterson as the lone shooter who fired 29 rounds from a 9 mm handgun in the apartment complex's parking lot Sunday morning, allegedly striking a 31-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman who police believe were part of a love triangle that had enraged Patterson, according to the court filings.
In a search warrant for Patterson’s house, Lincoln Police Investigator Robert Martin said video surveillance showed Patterson driving a dark sedan into the apartment parking lot at 3237 Portia St. at 2:42 a.m. Sunday.
Ten minutes later, Kameko Campbell, a 35-year-old Lincoln woman and the mother of Patterson’s children, pulled into the same parking lot to meet up with 31-year-old Adrian Lott, according to the affidavit.
As Lott approached Campbell’s car, Patterson got out of his own sedan and approached the two and fired “numerous†shots before retreating to his car, Martin said in court records.
Patterson, Campbell and Lott all left the parking lot in different cars and, soon, all arrived at the Bryan West Campus emergency room with gunshot wounds, Martin said.
Police believe Patterson first returned to his house in west Lincoln and swapped the Chevrolet sedan he had been driving for a Chevy Tahoe, which he then drove to Bryan West, Martin said.
Investigators later found the Chevrolet Malibu that Patterson is thought to have fled the shooting scene in at his house with “what looked to be blood†on the driver’s door, according to the search warrant.
It’s unclear who shot Patterson, who suffered gunshot wounds to his left leg and left hand. Police only recovered one caliber and brand of shell casings from the apartment parking lot, according to court filings. And Martin’s account of the surveillance footage does not mention a second shooter.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting, tipsters told police that Patterson was “very possessive and did not want Campbell to be with other men,†but that the 35-year-old woman was dating Lott, who she met in the parking lot that night.
Martin said that one informant told police that Campbell had gone live on Facebook in February amid a phone call with Patterson in which he allegedly threatened to shoot her before cocking a gun.
And, in the days after the shooting, investigators reviewed a photo Patterson had sent on Snapchat indicating Campbell would have to “see (him)†as soon as he was able to walk, Martin alleged in the search warrant.
Police identified Patterson as the suspect shown in the surveillance video in part because of the distinctive vest he allegedly wore to both the apartment parking lot and to Bryan West. He left against medical advice — with a bullet lodged in his leg — shortly after arriving at the hospital Sunday morning, Martin said.
He was arrested Wednesday afternoon and taken to the Lancaster County jail.
At his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, which Patterson attended via Zoom from a jail cell with bandaging wrapped around his left hand, the 35-year-old asked Judge Laurie Yardley for a "reasonable bond," pointing to his injury.
"Ma'am," he said, "I'm just in very serious pain."
At the request of prosecutors, Yardley set Patterson's percentage bond at $1 million. He must pay $100,000 to be released.
"I can make nowhere near that," he said, before calling his detention "ridiculous."Â
If convicted of the five felonies prosecutors charged him with Thursday, he could face up to 190 years in prison.