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MIDVALE — A second person has been charged in connection with a shooting that injured a 2-year-old bystander.
Luis Quintana, 18, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with five counts of firing a gun causing injury and aggravated assault, second-degree felonies; and failing to stop at the command of police, a class A misdemeanor.
Christian Pena-Renteria, 18, was charged May 22 with four counts of discharge of a firearm and aggravated assault, second-degree felonies; and failing to stop for law enforcement, a class A misdemeanor.
A third person, a 16-year-old boy, is also listed in court documents as a co-defendant. As of Thursday, he had not been charged as an adult.
On May 11, a couple noticed they were being followed by another car in Midvale. When the couple stopped and started getting out of their car, the car following them also stopped, and "a male inside … pulled out a gun and started shooting," according to charging documents.
The woman being shot at told police that she recognized Pena-Renteria as the driver and the 16-year-old as the passenger because "they all grew up together so she didn't understand why they would shoot at her," the charges state.
The man with the woman stated that he "then observed a second male begin shooting at them from behind the driver's seat" and "estimated there were five to seven shots," the court documents say.
Police say the couple's 1-year-old son was in the car at the time of the shooting. The toddler was not injured. However, a 2-year-old girl on the stairs at her nearby residence was hit in the leg by something, which was "later determined to be a ricochet fragment," the charges state. Police say the girl's injuries were minor.
Unified police spotted the suspects' vehicle about four hours later near 7200 S. State and started following it.
"The vehicle then took off at a high rate of speed through the neighborhood. (The officer) activated (his) emergency lights and siren, attempting to stop the vehicle. The vehicle continued to disregard audio and visual commands to stop while making evasive turns within the neighborhood," a police booking affidavit states.
Police say one man got out of the vehicle and ran as the car continued to the Brighton Place apartments, 145 W. Plumtree Lane, where two more people got out and ran. Evidence collected by detectives helped identify Pena-Renteria, who was arrested at his residence, the charges state.
A phone left in the fleeing car was determined to be Quintana's and, after going through messages on social media, investigators determined he was the person who first ran from the vehicle, according to the charges.
Police say Quintana is a documented gang member who was on parole from the juvenile court system at the time of the shooting. He was convicted as a juvenile in 2021 for aggravated assault and assault by a prisoner, as well as possession of weapon by a restricted person and obstruction in 2022, according to court documents.
