Cedar Rapids police respond to four shootings over weekend

CEDAR RAPIDS - Police continue to investigate the possible connection between four weekend shootings.

The shootings come on the heels of four incidents that occurred Thursday and Friday.

The first shooting occurred around 4:38 a.m. Saturday at 421 16th St. NE. Police said a house was hit and a shell casing was found in the street.

The second shots fired incident occurred nearly 24 hours later, at 2:41 a.m. on Sunday at 377 17th St. SE. Police said the residence was shot several times, but no shell casings were discovered.

That night, police responded to a report of shots fired at 387 17th St. SE. Responding officers were unable to located any suspects or victims, according to public safety spokesman Greg Buelow.

The final shooting happened early Monday morning around 3:23 a.m. Police said a residence at 1632 Bever Ave. SE was hit by gunfire. The Bever Avenue and 377 17th St. SE addresses are part of the same, multifamily complex, Buelow said.

'Police are continuing to investigate possible correlations between the incidents,” he added.

Cedar Rapids police responded to four shootings between Thursday and Friday last week. Three people suffered minor injuries and two people were arrested.

Police Chief Wayne Jerman said last week that he did not have any information to suggest the Thursday and Friday shootings - which occurred in southwest and southeast Cedar Rapids - were related.

As of Monday afternoon, police had responded to 61 reports of shots fired since January 1. The four over the weekend, the first in August, nearly equaled the total for the same month last year, when there were 5 reports of shots fired in August 2014.