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WEST JORDAN — Police arrested a South Jordan man over the weekend who they say shot at another driver during a road rage incident.
Arlo Rey Beltran, 31, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault and felony discharge of a firearm.
On Friday night, Beltran and a 28-year-old man in another vehicle got into a dispute starting somewhere on I-15, said West Jordan police officer Scott Lift.
"They were going back and forth, swerving into each other," he said.
Investigators believe this went on for at least 15 minutes. When the two cars reached the area of 9000 South and 3800 West just before 9 p.m., "the victim swerved toward the suspect’s vehicle, causing him to be angry. The suspect pulled out a gun from his center console and pointed it toward the victim’s vehicle," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
At least one shot was fired, but the victim didn't realize at first that he had been hit, according to Lift.
"He didn't think he'd been shot. But he did see what he thought was a handgun being pointed at him," the officer said. "And then later on realized he had been hit by something."
Lift said detectives believe the man was hit by shrapnel and not an actual bullet. But before he realized that he was injured, he continued following Beltran while calling 911, police said. When he figured out that he had been hit, the man drove himself to the hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and later released.
A witness was able to give police a partial license plate number and a description of the gunman's car, the report states. An officer used that information to come up with Beltran's name and then called him.
Beltran, however, claimed he was in Magna and that his friend had his car, according to the report. Officers called the friend who claimed he was in Vernal.
But after additional investigation, Beltran was found hiding at his parents' business in West Jordan about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the report states. A handgun was also recovered, Lift said.
After he was arrested, Beltran told detectives that he asked his friend to lie about having the vehicle in Vernal, the report says. As of Monday, the friend had not been cited.
