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WEST VALLEY CITY — Police arrested a man Thursday who is accused of participating in shooting at West Valley police officers in an attempt to create a diversion so his associates could escape.
Marco Etsitty, 31, was arrested on parole violations. But police say Etsitty is a suspect in Wednesday night's shooting incident involving West Valley police officers attempting to serve a search warrant on a hotel room.
Police were called to the Sleep Inn, 3440 Decker Lake Dr., after someone reported another person had pointed a gun at them. When officers arrived at the hotel, they were able to identify the room where the alleged gunman was staying but no one answered the door.
Officers could hear someone inside "telling others in the room not to open the door," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.
At that point, the West Valley officers went back outside the hotel and waited for a search warrant to be signed by a judge.
About three hours later, just after 10 p.m., multiple shots were fired in the direction of officers from a vehicle on the nearby northbound on-ramp to I-215. No officers or patrol cars were hit.
When police eventually entered the hotel room, they found Ghufran Al-Bander, 21, Danial Movahhed, 28, Cortez Leenord Quarles, 22, and Kamel Al-Bander, 20, in addition to at least three handguns, according to the report.
Investigators also seized the group's cellphones. On them, they found text messages to another person asking to create a diversion so they could escape.
"Someone needs to go by the furniture store and shoot the gun, so that their attention in drawn," a text from Al-Bander's phone read, according to the report. "There's cops surround the … room. We need a distraction. We need help ASAP to come shoot so that attention goes to that."
An intensive effort was launched to find Etsitty. He was spotted driving near 3100 South and 2500 West about 8 p.m. Thursday, Vainuku said. A felony stop was executed and Etisitty was taken into custody without incident.
Vainuku said investigators believe he was "actively involved" in the incident, but declined to say Friday what they believe his role was. Etsitty was arrested for outstanding warrants and not in connection with the shooting.
Police continued to look for additional suspects on Friday.
in 2014, Etsitty was convicted of drug possession and sentenced to a year in jail, but the time was ordered to be served at the Utah State Prison, according to court records. That sentence was to run concurrent with another prison sentence he was serving for another drug-related conviction in 2011. In 2006, Etsitty was convicted of attempting to assault a corrections officer.
