The year's first arrest was a short and relatively easy one. Ofcrs. Jennifer Wing and John Fedak spotted the youngster firing a 9mm silver and black handgun into the air on the corner of NW Sixth Avenue and Eleventh Street.
Mendoza didn't cry or kick during the bust, police say, but he whined: "I wasn't shooting at anybody, only into the air!" Police got an extra surprise: Mendoza, charged with discharging a firearm in public, was carrying a small canister of marijuana in his front pocket making him the first misdemeanor of 2006 too. He has pleaded not guilty.
Computer analysis shows that the Mendoza bust narrowly beat out several public intoxication arrests. The proud officers, Wing and Fedak though aware the new year had begun hadn't the faintest idea they had nabbed the first crook of 2006.