By Jacob Hancock
Orem police made four arrests Wednesday. Oct. 25, 2006, after a man accidentally shot his older brother, a witness said. He intended to fire the 9mm round at the leg of his brother?s attacking roommate.
When Alonzo Rangel, 19, came home, his mother, who lives next door, told him his ex-girlfriend and other gang-affiliated individuals were hanging out in his apartment with his roommate, Oswaldo Gutierrez, 34, said Lt. Doug Edwards, Orem Police spokesman.
Alonzo and his younger brother Parker Rangel, 18, approached Alonzo?s apartment with a 9mm handgun with the intent to drive them out of the apartment, said Dan, an upstairs neighbor to Alonzo who refused to give his last name.
?When [Alonzo] went to tell them to get out, they jumped him and just started kicking him,? Dan said. ?That?s when his brother accidentally shot [Alonzo]. ?
Alonzo, not realizing he had been shot in the stomach, jumped up and hit Gutierrez in the upper leg with the claw end of a nearby hammer, Ed-wards said. The brothers told police that they then ran from the apartment after they heard Gutierrez make a comment about ?ending this now? that they thought meant he was going to grab a gun that they knew he had.
According to a police report, detectives, operating under a search warrant, later found a sawed-off .22 caliber rifle with pistol grips in Gutierrez?s room.
?The gunshot pretty much put an end to the hostilities and everyone started to split up,? Edwards said. ?That?s about the time the police arrived.?
When officers pulled up to the brick four-plex apartment at 134 E. 300 West, they pulled weapons and questioned those hustling away from the scene at gunpoint, Dan said.
Dan said he witnessed the inci-dent from his front porch.
?They had them on the ground,? he said. ?Then a couple [people] took off out the driveway and [officers] chased the car down.?
Officers stopped the vehicle and arrested a male, 34, and female, 34, both with prior warrants for arrest.
Alonzo, now bleeding from the wound of a bullet that exited just below his ribs, was on the front lawn of his mother?s next-door apartment and was taken to Timpanogos Hospi-tal, where he was treated and released Thursday morning.
Gutierrez was taken to Utah Val-ley Regional Medical Center where he was treated with stitches for his leg wound. He was later released to po-lice and is currently being held at an Orem holding facility.
Initially, witnesses told police that the group in the apartment was doing drugs, but Edwards said no drugs were found in a warranted search.
?[Alonzo?s] a good guy.? Dan said. ?He just came by [after he was released from the hospital] and showed me the bullet wound. He said he was irritated that police are trying to say that his brother tried to shoot him. He said, ?I?d rather be shot by my brother than to continue to take the beating that I was taking by those guys. My brother did the right thing.??
