Cops: Teen Shot at Long Beach Train Station

A Long Beach boy shot and wounded a fellow teenager during an altercation involving four youths at the Long Beach train station and bus depot Monday afternoon.

According to Long Beach Police Department, Rodney Arnold, 17, was arrested and charged with attempted murder after he fought with three teen males and he fired a handgun, striking one teen in the chest at about 3:40 p.m. on May 21.

“The victim suffered a non life-threatening injury,” Sgt. Eric Cregeen, LBPD's public information officer, said about the wounded boy, who is also 17 years old. The Long Beach Fire Department transported the teen to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside.

“[The bullet] hit his ribs but no vitals, and he’s going to be all right,” Cregeen added.

While an investigation is ongoing, it appears the altercation involved three teens fighting with Arnold, Cregeen said, and Arnold may have fired as many as three shots, possibly using a .22-caliber pistol. The gun has not been recovered.

“It appears that it was an ongoing dispute,” Cregeen said of the possible cause of the fight.

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At the time of the shooting, Cregeen and fellow officers were at Long Beach headquarters, located across the street from the bus depot and train station.

“I heard the shots and looked out the window and see four guys actively engaged in a fight,” Cregeen said about the altercation that occurred west of the train tracks. “So we ran across the street and picked up the shooter right at the scene.”

The other three teens fled, but police officers soon apprehended them at the intersection of Riverside Boulevard and East Fulton Street.

“When we get there, we discover one of them was shot in the chest,” Cregeen said. “He either didn’t realize it or he did but just kept running.”

While the wounded teen was transported to the hospital, the other two teens and Arnold were taken to police headquarters for questioning.

Arnold will be arraigned at Long Beach City Court on Tuesday.

Cregeen noted that the bus depot was crowded at the time of the shooting and some people ran into police headquarters. “It was a wild scene,” he said. “Thank God no one else was hit.”

David Weiss, Superintendent of Long Beach School District, said the wounded teen is a student at Long Beach High School, and that as a security measure students’ bags will be checked as they enter school on Tuesday. "There is NO threat," he wrote in an email to Patch. "We want to be cautious tomorrow."