- Abraham Hernandez-Duron, 40, faces a federal charge accusing him of stealing five firearms in Park City.
- He allegedly fired shots from inside the Park City Gun Club during the Aug. 24 incident after law enforcement arrived on the scene.
- Hernandez-Duron, an immigrant from Mexico in the country illegally, was arrested after crashing a car allegedly containing five stolen guns.
SALT LAKE CITY — A man living in Taylorsville faces a federal charge accusing him of stealing five firearms from a Park City gun store and shooting range last month.
The suspect, Abraham Hernandez-Duron, 40, allegedly fired a weapon from inside the locale, the Park City Gun Club, after law enforcement arrived. But officials reported no injuries and didn't say if they were targeted. "Multiple shots were fired from the inside of the building while law enforcement was on scene," reads the federal charging document.
Hernandez-Duron, in the country illegally, according to federal officials, faces a count of theft of firearms from a licensed dealer, a felony, in the Aug. 24 incident. Federal prosecutors filed the charge against the man on Aug. 26, and he made his initial appearance in federal court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
Hernandez-Duron allegedly used a hammer to break a window of the Park City Gun Club to gain entry, according to a press release Friday from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City. That triggered an alarm, prompting a response from Summit County Sheriff's Office and Park City police. Soon after he allegedly fired some sort of weapon from inside the locale, Hernandez-Duron fled in a car.
"Police safely pursued and eventually, Hernandez-Duron crashed the vehicle at Trailside Bike Park," which is located in Park City, reads the U.S. Attorney's Office statement. Three semiautomatic pistols and two semiautomatic rifles were recovered in the man's car.
Hernandez-Duron was being held as of Friday in the Salt Lake County Jail. According to jail records, he's from Mexico.
The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and is part of Operation Take Back America, according to Friday's statement. While the statement didn't offer details of Hernandez-Duron's background, it said the initiative "aims to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."
