DRAPER, Utah, Nov. 15, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A man whose pizza was not warm and waiting for him when he arrived at a Draper Papa John’s to pick it up is being held without bail after he allegedly shot at the takeout restaurant and injured one of the workers.
The phone system had been down, so call-in-orders had not been received or processed, a counter worker told the suspect and his friend when they showed up at about 7 p.m. Sunday for the pie.
“He told the two males he did not have their order, but began attempting to accommodate them by offering to have them place an order in the store,” says the probable cause statement filed by an officer of the Draper City Police Department.
“The two males became very agitated and began swearing at the employee at the front desk. The employee asked the males to leave the store and they refused. He then told them he was going to call the police, and they left while he was on the phone with dispatch.”
The worker gave police very specific descriptions of both men and what they were wearing, along with their modes of transportation. One arrived on a one-wheel balance skateboard and the other was on a blue dirt bike type motorcycle.
At about 8:45 p.m., the employee who had talked to the two men went out the restaurant’s back door for a work break.
“While he was outside the building on the north side, he heard five or six loud gun shots very close by,” the probable cause statement says. “He said he started running towards the back door of the building and as he started opening the door he saw and heard a dirt bike style motorcycle driving northbound past the building into the parking lot area just north of the Papa Johns.”
The rider was wearing clothing similar to that of one of the men from earlier, and the employee believed the rider was on the same bike seen earlier, but said he did not get a good look at the rider’s face.
“He explained he looked towards the front door area where he heard the loud pops, and he saw glass falling,” the officer’s statement says. “He tried running away and he fell to the ground and eventually got to the back office.
“The third employee was up front on the store when he explained he heard gun shots and glass shattering. He stated he dropped to the ground and crawled to the bathroom in the back of the store. He stated glass shards had struck him in the face.”
Officers observed lacerations between the victim’s eyes and in his nose area. Police began searching the area, and about 10 minutes later, drove by an address in the area of 12200 South and 900 East, and saw two white males standing near a blue dirt bike. The males fled, and officers determined the bike’s muffler was hot from having run recently. Police learned one of the men lived in the house associated with the garage.
Employees were able to identify the suspects as the males who had been in the store earlier. One suspect consented to a DNA and gunpowder test, and the other declined. Police obtained a search warrant, and the second male, 32-year-old Paul Fracasso, was found to have gunshot residue on his hand.
A search warrant for the residence and vehicles, turned up clothing matching that clerks said the dirt bike rider had worn, and a Smith and Wesson 40 S&W caliber handgun with
ammunition like that shot at the Papa John’s.
Fracasso was jailed on initial charges of:
- Felony discharge of a firearm, shoot in the direction of person, a second-degree felony
- Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony
Fracasso is being held without bail. Charges had not been filed against the second man as of 1 p.m. Monday.
