Man Pleads Guilty to Assault with Semiautomatic Firearm Near Santee

A man who opened fire on a pair of rivals in front of an East County market, missing them but wounding a woman in an SUV, pleaded guilty today to two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.

Latif Raimo, 22, will be sentenced to nine years in state prison at a hearing May 7.

Sheriff's deputies said Raimo got into an argument with the two other men for unknown reasons about 5 p.m. last Nov. 7 in a parking lot on East Bradley Avenue in Bostonia, an unincorporated area east of Gillespie Field.

During the argument, Raimo walked into a nearby market, quickly came back outside, then pulled a gun and walked across the street while continuing to exchange words with the two men, who were standing by a white sedan, according to Detective Patrick Evans.

At that point, three women and their three children, ages 1, 3, and 5, arrived in a Ford Expedition and parked next to the sedan where the two men were standing,

Moments later, Raimo fired numerous shots toward the vehicles and fled, as did the other two men, Evans said.

Medics took one of the women to a hospital with a non-life-threatening back wound.

No one else was wounded, though several bullets narrowly missed the children in the back seat of the SUV, according to Evans.

—City News Service