Salt Lake man arrested after randomly firing 20 shots from his home, police say

A man was arrested Thursday after police say he fired about 20 rounds outside of his Salt Lake home.

A man was arrested Thursday after police say he fired about 20 rounds outside of his Salt Lake home. (Rafa Jodar, Shutterstock)


Save Story

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A man was arrested Thursday after police say he randomly fired about 20 rounds into the ground and into the air in Salt Lake City.

Police say no one was injured, but a neighbor's garage was hit.

Eric Gonzales, 41, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of discharging a firearm within city limits, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and 21 counts of illegally firing a gun.

About 3:40 p.m. Thursday, police were called to the area of 1900 W. Northstar Drive (400 North) on a report of shots being fired. Multiple casings were found on the south side of Gonzales' home, according to a police booking affidavit.

"In this case, (Gonzales) fired multiple rounds recklessly through a heavy populated residential area. When officers made initial contact he refused to come to the door and ignored officers for approximately an hour," the affidavit states.

Police say Gonzales then "tried escaping by running out of the home. Because officers had quickly set up around the home, officers safely captured Gonzales."

A search warrant was served on Gonzales' home after he was arrested and two guns were seized, police said.

"This situation posed an imminent threat to the safety and lives of innocent bystanders in the neighborhood, and we are so fortunate that no one was harmed," Chief Mike Brown said in a statement.

Most recent Police & Courts stories

Related topics

Pat Reavy, KSLPat Reavy
Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Newsletter Signup

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button