Woman's gun charges dropped

Police have dropped accessory and gun charges against a 25-year-old North Preston woman arrested in connection with a shooting in north-end Dartmouth Tuesday night.

Samteen Geneva Smith was arrested by Halifax Regional Police at about 9 p.m. Police say she was pulled over for driving a silver SUV, which matched the description of a vehicle seen fleeing the shooting in Nova Court about 40 minutes earlier.

Smith appeared in Dartmouth provincial court yesterday on the lesser charge of breaching of recognizance.

But police spokesman Const. Brian Palmeter said investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility Smith was involved in the shooting.

“Basically, at this point, there’s additional things that need to be done by our investigators before we lay any charges,” he said. “We haven’t ruled out any other charges being laid ... in connection with this.”

A forensic identification team was on scene for much of yesterday, and Palmeter said they would be examining the vehicle Smith was driving.

Just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, police received reports of multiple gunshots in the area of Nova Court near Wyse Road and Boland Drive. No one was injured in the shooting, but bullets hit several homes on Nova Court, Canso Lane, Demetreous Lane and Green Road.

Palmeter said police don’t believe any of the homes hit were targeted, but stray bullets are always a troubling thing.

“There’s a lot of families living in (the area), a lot of children,” he said. “Certainly the fact that these houses were hit is concerning to us, especially given the fact there’s quite a large number of kids and (this was) obviously putting the innocent public at risk.”

Police are trying to track down two suspects in relation to the shooting. They are described as two males in their 20s. Police say they fled the area in an SUV driven by a woman.

Palmeter said police are still trying to determine the intended victim.