A 20-year-old man was charged Tuesday in the drive-by shooting at a city councilman's home.
"He shot a number of times, but he only hit the house three times," Councilman Jesse Garcia said. "It was scary as h---. We've lived around here quite some time and none of this ever happened before."Arturo Rodriguez was charged in 2nd District Court with a felony count of discharging a firearm from a vehicle and misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and giving false information to a police officer.
Judge Parley R. Baldwin scheduled a preliminary hearing July 18 and set bail at $5,550.
Police stopped the car less than two blocks from Garcia's home. They released three juvenile companions with citations for minor offenses. Two of the juveniles identified Rodriguez as the shooter, according to a police report.
"This all happened between 1 and 2:30 in the morning," Garcia said. "The first two times the shots woke up my daughters, but they didn't hear them hit anything. Then they heard the third one come through the window. . . . They woke me up with their screaming."
Garcia said Rodriguez had briefly dated a niece of the councilman. He alleged Rodriguez had mistreated her to the point the family sent her to live with relatives in the East last week to keep him away from her.
There were no injuries in Monday's shootings. The shot through the window destroyed a color television set that sat by the window. Two bullets were found in the side of the house.
Despite the shootings, Garcia said he's staying put.
"West Ogden is still the only place in Ogden I want to be" he said, noting the suspects all live in central Ogden.
He said Rodriguez had threatened family members in his front yard only a week and a half ago, showing them he had a shotgun. Garcia called police after that incident, and the man was booked on a misdemeanor charge of threatening with a dangerous weapon.
"Now he gets out of jail and he's shooting at the house," Garcia said. "I don't know what's going to happen next."
Police confiscated a .22-caliber Winchester repeating rifle believed used in the shootings. Police said Rodriguez gave officers two different birth dates and two different Ogden addresses.