SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 27, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Police have arrested a man on multiple felony charges after his alleged involvement with a shooting last month in Salt Lake City.
Luis Alfaro, 24, was jailed early Friday for investigation of:
- Two counts of felony discharge of a firearm with bodily injury, a second-degree felony
- Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony
- Unlawful possession/purchase/transfer of a dangerous weapon, a third-degree felony
- Obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony
According to Alfaro’s affidavit, police were dispatched to a shooting on April 6 and responded to the area of 1054 W. 300 South in Salt Lake City. They arrived to find a victim walking away with gunshots to the left arm and right leg. The victim said the shooter drove away in a black vehicle.
About a half-hour later, University of Utah Hospital reported a male who arrived with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was identified as Alfaro, who police say is a documented gang member.
“Luis stated that he was at a car meet on the west side area of Salt Lake City near a freeway overpass when multiple people began shooting,” Alfaro’s arrest documents say. “Luis is a documented Playboy Sureno gang member. Luis stated that (another documented gang member) was with him when the shooting occurred.
“Luis was observed by University of Utah security personnel driving to the front doors of the hospital in a black sedan. Security observed Luis exit the vehicle and enter the hospital. They also observed a male, exit the black sedans’ passenger seat, get into the driver’s seat and drive away.”
Also on April 6, someone who knows the initial victim told police that Alfaro, who used to be his friend and who drives a black Honda Prelude, had shot him.
A friend of Alfaro told police on April 6 after a traffic stop that he and Alfaro were in the area of 500 S. Gladiola St. when “multiple people began shooting at each other. (The friend) stated that he got into one car and Luis got into another car with his cousin.” The friend speculated that another associate drove Alfaro to the hospital.
On April 8, SLCPD officers got an anonymous tip stating that Alfaro was involved in shooting that injured two people. The tipster provided an address where police found the two victims.
Police were granted a search warrant for Alfaro’s Instagram account “and intercepted messages between Luis … and many other documented Playboy Sureno gang members,” the affidavit says. “In these messages Luis states that he was shot by a rifle after a physical altercation. Luis then states that he ran up to the driver’s side window of the person who shot him and shot at this individual.”
An officer located the shooting scene, near Franklin Elementary School, and obtained video surveillance that showed a physical altercation between two men, one wearing clothing like that Alfaro was wearing when he arrived at the hospital on April 6. It showed two men had entered a black sedan, and one extended his arm as if firing a gun, the affidavit says. Two vehicles fled the scene at a high rate of speed.
Alfaro was arrested Friday and remained in custody as of Monday. The identity of the shooting victim first interviewed first by police was not immediately available, so it is unknown if he faces charges.
