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MILLCREEK — Unified police have arrested a man in connection with a shooting at a Millcreek apartment complex that prompted a large police response on Halloween night and resulted in two men being injured with one shot.
Bushmen Martin Ebet, 26, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Thursday for investigation of illegal discharge of a firearm and two counts of aggravated assault.
The investigation began just before midnight on Oct. 31 when Unified police were called to the Artesian Springs apartment complex, 4197 S. Main, on a report of a shooting. Officers arrived to find an SUV with a missing wheel on the top level of the parking garage.
A 17-year-old boy, Ebet and another man were found inside the vehicle, according to a police booking affidavit.
A woman had called her husband and told him that the three men "had spoken to her in the parking garage and followed her into the apartment building." Unified police earlier said the woman called her husband after the men had asked her if she happened to have a spare tire.
The woman's husband and other family members then drove to the apartment complex, confronted the three men and told them them not to go anywhere because police were on their way. During an ensuing argument, Ebet "placed the gun on the forehead" of the husband who "then slapped the gun off his forehead as the gun went off," the affidavit states.
A bullet struck the husband "on the side of his head, causing a small scratch-like mark" and then stuck a second family member, "grazing his eyebrow, and went through (his) ear. The damage done to (his) ear required stitches," according to the arrest report.
The injuries to both men were minor. However, because the incident was reported to emergency dispatchers as a possible active shooter, a very large police response was called out to the apartment complex.
A few days later, the 17-year-old driver of SUV was arrested and booked into Weber Valley Youth Detention. Unified police served a search warrant on the boy's phone and found "a KSL article regarding the shooting" that was sent to Ebet with the message "You hit both of em with 1 shot," the affidavit states.
Also on the phone was a video of the trio shooting a gun at an unknown location approximately two hours before the Millcreek incident, according to police.
Investigators located the second man believed to be in the SUV that night and questioned him. He claimed the series of events actually began earlier in the evening when the three got into a fight with a man at an apartment complex in Murray. The suspects tried to drive away, but the man they were fighting with went after them and intentionally rammed their SUV with his car near 4500 S. Main, causing the SUV to lose a wheel, the affidavit says.
The man being questioned declined to identify Ebet, according to police.
Detectives, however, used other evidence to identify Ebet and questioned him Thursday about the shooting at the Millcreek apartment complex.
"He said the victims were shoving him and he did not take kindly to that. He said he conceal carries a firearm and pulled the firearm out. Bushmen said he pistol whipped one of the individuals and in the process of hitting him with his handgun, the gun went off. He said once the gun went off, he took off running because he was scared," the affidavit states.
