Carlos Ortiz was the kind of guy who wanted everyone around him to be happy.
"He was a kid at heart," his aunt Georgina Trujillo said Sunday.
A kid who loved skateboarding and fishing. An amateur artist, who endlessly drew pictures and fake tattoos in pen on the arms and legs of his young cousins and other children in his family. A poet and aspiring rap singer, who loved to move to the beat of the music. A kid who at the Christmas holidays was the unofficial greeter to anyone and everyone who walked through the door.
"Carlos was always the first one you'd see," his cousin Sara Martinez said. "He was cheerful. He was always messing with you, tickling you and teasing."
Saturday night, the 18-year-old Ortiz and another man were shot at 9:40 p.m. as they walked up a ramp onto the front porch of his grandmother's home, 321 S. Goshen St. (1040 West). Ortiz had lived there with his grandmother, Linda Trujillo, and his mother, Angela Ortiz, for the past two years, Georgina Trujillo said.
Ortiz apparently died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The bullet went through the back of Ortiz's head, out his forehead and through the front door of the home, the bullet landing on the living room floor, his aunt said. An official cause of death is pending an autopsy by the state medical examiner.
The second man, whose name has not been released because police cannot confirm his identity, suffered two gun shot wounds and was taken to a local hospital. On Sunday, he was listed in "guarded" condition after surgery at a local hospital, Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird said.
Police still had little information about the shooting Sunday, Baird said.
"We know it wasn't a drive-by shooting," said Baird. "It did happen there on the porch."
But by whom and for what reason is a question that remained unanswered on Sunday.
Family members say that Ortiz and a friend were at the home Saturday night, but had gone on an errand to the store shortly before the shooting. They fell wounded just a few short steps from the front door, Georgina Trujillo said.
"My sister had just locked the front door and gone back to the kitchen when she heard, boom, boom," Georgina Trujillo said. "She was scared. But then she heard Carlos say (something). When she opened the door, she could see their feet."
Residents up and down Goshen Street had differing reports of Saturday's events.
Neighbor Tom Tessman said his wife heard the shots, but he did not because he was running a machine in the back of his house. The shooting death comes as a "total surprise," in what Tessman described as a quiet neighborhood.
Lydia Syfu, who lives down the street, heard four shots. She also said she heard a car screech away in what sounded like a U-turn down Goshen. Earlier that night, Syfu saw a car parked on the street outside the house and said she assumed that those in the car were watching for someone. She said she has worried about gang-type activity in the neighborhood.
Both Ortiz and his friend were initially identified by police as "known gang members" and police called the shooting "gang-related."
In 2001, Ortiz was cited by the Utah Highway Patrol for two misdemeanor citations, according to records from 3rd District Court. Case records show that Ortiz missed a hearing because he was in juvenile detention, but there was no indication that the case was ever adjudicated. Last November, Ortiz was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on a federal charge, but jail records clerks were unable to identify the exact charge Sunday.
But there's more to the story, said family and friends, who gathered at Ortiz's home Sunday.
"(The police) are labeling him, and they have no idea what was going on with him," his aunt, Georgina Trujillo, said. "He was into a little bit of trouble, but that was in the past. He was going to school. He realized that he was with the wrong group of people, so he stopped. We sat down with him and told him, you've got to make the right choices."
Ortiz had enrolled at the Horizonte Center and was working on his GED. He had a new girlfriend and was talking about wanting to marry her some day. Just recently, Ortiz met the young woman's parents for the first time, Georgina Trujillo said.
"He was so nervous," she said. "He wanted to look right and make a good impression."
Police had no suspects in the shootings Sunday and are asking anyone who might have been in the area or anyone with information about the crime to call, 799-3000, and share that information, Baird said.
Ortiz's relatives said they had no ideas or theories about what happened or who might have wanted to hurt Ortiz. The family spent most of the night comforting each other, Martinez said.
"It's weird," Martinez said. "One day they are here and one day, they are gone."
Contributing: Laura Hancock
E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com