CENTERVILLE — A Davis County metropolitan SWAT team used a flash-bang device to flush out a man suspected of killing a California teenage boy described by family and friends as a young man full of heart and kindness.
Eric Aguilar, 17, was shot and killed Sept. 16 in the parking lot of Sonora High School in California. Less than two weeks later, tips led officers to a Centerville home early Saturday and a trailer parked out back where Joshua Rodriguez, 20, of Toulumne, Calif., was residing.
Based on information from law enforcement in California, the Bountiful Metropolitan SWAT team entered the trailer after deploying a flash-bang device and took Rodriguez into custody without incident.
“Joshua Rodriguez was hiding out with a woman in a camper trailer located in the backyard of a residence in Centerville and was taken into custody shortly after midnight,” Centerville Police Chief Paul Child said.
The Union Democrat newspaper in California reported that police do not believe the shooting of Aguilar, who aspired to be an underwater welder, was random.
His family and friends described him as a bright young teenager with a future ahead of him.
“I just keep thinking he’s going to come home,” said Autumn Aguilar, the boy’s mother. “They took the wrong kid. He really had such a good life ahead of him.”
After arresting Rodriguez, Child said officers recovered a knife, a cellphone and some marijuana from the scene. The woman with Rodriguez was interviewed, then released.
Rodriguez will be held in the Davis County Jail pending extradition proceedings, the chief said.