Reading man arrested in mid-July shooting [Update]

Aug 4 Editor’s Note: The original version of this article has been edited to correct some errors and to provide additional information.

Reading Police and members of the Berks County Emergency Response Team raided an apartment in south Reading on Thursday and arrested the suspect in a mid-July shooting, seizing a gun he was banned from owning due to convictions for robbery and burglary, investigators said Friday.

Police on Thursday charged Rehiem Shearin, 38, with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm while prohibited and related counts. Officers armed with a search warrant found him in his apartment in the 100 block of North Fifth Street around 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Shearin was held at Berks County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail after arraignment Thursday night before District Judge Priscilla Campos in Reading Central Court.

According to the police:

Patrol officers were called to a shooting on Sixth and Spruce Streets around 6 a.m. on July 17.

Officers found a victim with a gunshot wound to his hip. He was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Leiden.

The victim told police he was standing on the southwest corner of the intersection when an unidentified man approached him. An argument ensued and the man pointed a gun at him and shot him before fleeing west on Spring.

Officers retrieved footage of the shooting from nearby camera systems. They also obtained footage from the South Fifth and Spruce area. It showed the suspect returning to a newer model Chevrolet Malibu with tinted windows.

Investigators used law enforcement databases to identify the car. It had a Georgia license plate and was registered to a woman who lived in the 100 block of South Fifth Street.

Investigators found a police report of a previous incident involving that woman, with whom Shearin lived.

A witness to the shooting identified Shearin as the shooter from a photo setup.