FRANKLIN – Gary Garrison happened to be awake at 12:41 a.m. Oct. 1 when he heard what appeared to be two gunshots.

“Then,” he wrote on Franklin Police Department’s Facebook page, “about a dozen shots fired. I know it wasn’t a hunting party or just guns going off on their own. The prior time I heard shots, they were short, sharp and louder. This was ‘softer’ so the distance from my home was greater. and it was not fireworks. Happened to be up at that time.”

He was right, Franklin Chief Morris Beverly said.

Minutes later police converged on the area of Iberia and Oakdale streets, after calls from numerous people about shots being fired. Police found bullets had entered a house and a car. No one was injured.

Beverly, on the department Facebook page, said further investigation revealed that the shots were fired as part of recent gang activity in the area.

The investigation led to several arrests, including for a series of shootings on Sept. 23 at Iberia and Alpha streets where a car on Iberia and two on Alpha were hit. No one was injured in that shooting, Beverly said.

The first arrest came Oct. 12 when a 15-year-old boy was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal damage to property, illegal use of a weapon, illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile and 18 counts of attempted second-degree murder because of the number of shots fired and the number of people who could have been struck.

Another 15-year-old boy was charged on Oct. 19 with the same charges.

That same boy was also responsible for the September shooting and was charged on a warrant with illegal use of a weapon, aggravated criminal damage to property – three counts, illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile, and criminal street gang activity. The juvenile was booked, processed, and released pending juvenile court.

The last arrest came Oct. 21 when a 16-year-old boy was charged with the same counts, all involving the Oct. 1 shooting.

The investigations are still ongoing and additional arrests may be pending, Beverly said.