A Haverhill man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail followed by three years probation after he plead guilty to firearms and assault charges in connection with a May, 2014, incident involving a gun fired into the air from inside a moving vehicle in a Mount Washington neighborhood.
Eliezer Cruz, 27, of Haverhill, plead guilty Wednesday in Salem Superior Court to two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm (subsequent offense), according to Carrie Kimball-Monahan, spokesperson for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett. Charges of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling and malicious destruction of property were dismissed. Cruz was indicted on the charges by an Essex County grand jury on June 9, 2014, Kimball-Monahan said. The grand jury did not indict Cruz on Haverhill police charges of reckless endangerment of a child and unlawful possession of ammunition.
On May 20, 2014, Cruz fled his apartment at 28 Arch St., Haverhill after a neighbor dispute and subsequently fired a gun into the air multiple times from a moving vehicle with his wife and infant child inside on nearby Reed Street.
As WHAV reported in 2014, a police spokesperson said a verbal argument between two males escalated as one of the males pulled a handgun from his waistband and threatened two victims with the gun. The suspect was reported to have fled the scene with his wife and infant child in a grey Dodge Neon from Arch Street onto Beacon Street. While officers were on scene at 28 Arch St., they received additional calls from nearby Reed Street that witnesses observed a four door grey sedan driven by a female with a male in the passenger seat firing multiple shots out of the car window into the air . Haverhill Police recovered multiple shell casings in the street. As a result of witness statements and investigation by Haverhill detectives, Cruz was identified as a suspect, and subsequently arrested in Lawrence by Haverhill detectives, U.S. Marshals, and Lawrence police.