UPDATE, Friday, July 6, 2018, 4:12 p.m.: A judge has set bail at $250,000 for Donte King on charges in connection with Thursday's fatal shooting. A new story has been posted >>

SPRINGFIELD -- Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has criticized the release of a city man who was arrested Monday night on gun charges and was again arrested two days later and charged with armed assault in connection with a fatal shooting on Westminster Street.

"What the hell does it take to hold a violent repeat offender!" Sarno said in a prepared release.

Donte King, 32, and Aaron Kelly-Griffin, 27, were charged with armed assault with intent to commit a robbery Thursday after the fatal shooting. As of Friday morning, police had not filed murder charges against either man.

On Tuesday, King was charged in a separate matter with carrying a loaded firearm without a license, firearm violation with three prior violent drug crimes, carrying a loaded firearm in a public way and receiving stolen property under $250 after the car in which he was a passenger was stopped late Monday on Massachusetts Avenue, police said.

At King's arraignment Tuesday, the Hampden district attorney's office asked that bail be set at $25,000, according to court documents. The defense asked that bail be set at $5,000, and Judge John Payne set the bail at $10,000, records state.

Bail was posted and King was released.

Sarno said his "thoughts and prayers go out to the affected families."

"Donte King was just arrested on stolen and loaded gun charges on July 3rd and promptly let go by our court system," Sarno said. "Oh, I know some judges and defense attorneys will say, 'Mr. Mayor, you don't understand the bail system, it's only supposed to be to make sure a violent repeat offender comes back to court' - well, Mr. King did, but now it's to do with a fatal shooting - 'what the hell does it take to hold and keep these repeat violent offenders off our streets and out of our neighborhoods!'"

Police officers work hard "to keep our Springfield safe and clean," Sarno said.

"This is at times demoralizing - we're doing our job - I ask the courts to do theirs," Sarno said. "I wonder at times if some judges are more prone to protecting and coddling violent repeat offenders than protecting our law-abiding citizens."

Sarno has again urged the state Legislature to approve a bail reform bill.

Sarno has been critical of judges in cases in which he believes bail should have been imposed or higher bails should have been set.

Under his proposed bill, prosecutors could appeal bail rulings. Currently, defense lawyers can appeal bails set by District Court judges to Superior Court, but prosecutors cannot.

In April, William Travaun Bailey, president of the Hampden County Bar Association, said in response to the mayor's stand that the association "believes that the judges in Hampden County should continue to follow the Constitution and the highest courts' rulings and not a politically popular position."