LPD: 2 arrested in connection to shootings

Authorities have arrested two men in connection to two separate drive-by shootings. 

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Authorities have arrested two men in connection to two separate drive-by shootings.

Lincoln police arrested 21-year-old Ayezayah Buckhalter for discharging a firearm near a vehicle or building and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Officers found Buckhalter in a vehicle that was identified as having been involved in a shooting in the area of 27th and Cornhusker on Monday. In that case a Lincoln woman reported someone shot into the vehicle occupied by her and her two teenage sons.

Police say Buckhalter was already a suspect in an another shooting. In that case, a man reported he was sitting in his car in the street near 12th and F St. when a passenger in another vehicle fired several shots in his direction, drove away and then drove back by and fired several more shots from an AR-style rifle.

While serving a search warrant on the vehicle Buckhalter was found in, investigators found shell casings that would be used in an AR-style rifle, police said.

The investigation determined 19-year-old Dominick Rates, an associate of Buckhalter, had purchased a similar style rifled in June and that he had let Buckhalter borrow it during the time of the shooting, police said. The rifle believed to be used in the shooting was found at Rates’ home, police say.

Rates was arrested for being an accessory to a felony.