By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

Police were looking Thursday for a suspect in the shooting of a 26-year-old man Wednesday night outside an apartment building in Joplin.

Officers responding to an 8:30 p.m. report of gunfire found Damyon W. Fisher, of Seneca, lying on the back porch of an apartment at 904 S. Connecticut Ave. He was bleeding from a bullet wound to his lower abdomen, said Cpl. Chuck Niess of the Joplin Police Department.

Fisher was being assisted by Jason Doke, 31, when officers arrived, Niess said. Information from Doke led police to believe that the man who shot Fisher with a handgun left the scene in a white, 1997 Honda Accord, Niess said.

Fisher was taken by ambulance to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where he was listed as being in critical but stable condition late Thursday.

By Thursday afternoon, arrest warrants had been issued for Johnny White, 40, of Joplin, on suspicion of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The warrants carry a bond amount of $25,000. White had yet to be located by police.

Niess said investigators were trying to determine what precipitated the shooting. He said the victim’s condition at the scene precluded any chance of talking to him at that time.

“Until we can talk to the victim and/or the suspect, we really don’t have enough information to know what happened yet,” Niess said.

Neither Fisher nor White lives at the address where the shooting took place, Niess said. The occupant of the apartment on whose porch Fisher was found was identified as Louise Tatum, 40.

Niess said he did not know of any relationship of Tatum to either man. He said she told police that she was asleep when the shooting took place.

No gun was recovered at the scene, Niess said. He said he did not know if detectives had determined what caliber of weapon was involved. He said it also remained in question how many shots were fired. But Fisher had a single bullet wound to the abdomen, he said.

White was convicted in 2004 of felony possession of drugs and unlawful use of a weapon in Jasper County, according to court records. He was sentenced to three years in prison. His last known address on court records was on South Serene Lane.

Fisher also has a conviction for unlawful use of a weapon in 2007. He was assessed a suspended sentence.