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OREM — The Orem police department continues investigating the motive behind a hail of bullets that suddenly rang out over the weekend at the Metro 360 Apartment complex along State Street.
Police say a shootout between two groups of people happened just after 1 a.m. on Saturday. Five people are in custody, while three were treated and released at hospitals for gunshot wounds.
According to jail documents, one person was shot in the leg and another was shot in the back.
"No innocent people were hurt in any way. Everyone had something to do with (the shooting), and they were all involved," said Lt. Nick Thomas with Orem police.
Thomas said that had this happened just a few hours earlier, it could have turned into a much different situation, even deadly.
"It's a big area. A lot of people. I was nervous someone else was hit in one of the apartments. Some bullets skipped across the parking lot and hit some cars. We are lucky no one else was hurt," Thomas said.
An apartment resident told KSL-TV that her brother was having a large birthday party when the shooting broke out downstairs. She said her brother is not involved in gangs and didn't know all those involved.
Police said the suspects are 20-year-old Quinn Lopez, 19-year-old Andres Lopez, and 23-year-old Daniel Triste, and two juveniles who are 16 and 17 years old.
All of them are all claiming self-defense, according to jail documents. Triste told investigators he just went downstairs to get some more beer and people started shooting at him, police said. So he pulled out his gun and started shooting back, court documents state. He said he did not know the people shooting at him, according to police.
Police say the motive is still unknown as the scene was very chaotic.
"We are still trying to piece that together. We know that there was a party at that apartment, so we don't exactly know what happened, how these two groups came together to fight," said Thomas. "It doesn't look like a drug deal gone bad. It looks like a party."
