Police arrested the suspect after a brief foot chase in Florence.
NORTHAMPTON –Two shots fired into the air outside a bar in the Florence section of the city early Sunday led to the arrest of a 29-year-old Chicopee man, police said.
Capt. Scott A. Savino said eight witnesses told police the suspect, Alexander Nunez, fired two shots into the air outside the Silk City Taproom, 99 Main St., shortly before 2 a.m. Nunez then left the scene in a silver BMW.
Savino said the shots were fired during an altercation between two groups of people outside the bar. Racial epithets had been made during the altercation he said.
Information gathered at the scene led police to believe that Nunez had gone to Mill Valley Estates in Amherst. When police went to the front door of an apartment looking for Nunez, he fled out the back door into a wooded area.
Police arrested the suspect after a brief foot chase. He was in possession of cocaine and keys to the silver BMW, Savino said.
Meanwhile, an anonymous caller told police that the silver BMW had been left at the Florence Heights complex off Florence Road, Savino said.
Police towed the vehicle back to the police station and found a loaded Jennings 380 silver handgun, with two rounds missing under the driver’s seat, Savino said.
Nunez, of 1290 Memorial Drive, Apt. 602, was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, leaving a firearm in a vehicle unattended, receiving stolen property, breach of peace while armed, use of a firearm in commission and of a felony.
Amherst police were not immediately available to common on their charges against Nunez.