OREM, Utah — Two brothers were arrested early Thursday for their involvement in a shooting in Orem that left one person dead and 2 injured Wednesday.
Sidney Ramon Rodriguez, 18, of Spanish Fork and his unidentified younger brother were both booked into the Utah County Jail. The older Rodriguez was booked on three counts of attempted aggravated homicide, and one count each of aggravated homicide and obstruction of justice.
Police say the shooting was over a "drug deal gone bad."
Officers were dispatched at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to a possible shooting at a church near the canal trail. Witnesses saw two males with firearms getting into a white passenger car.
At the same time, officers were called to 1274 N. State where four juveniles were found in another car. The driver of the vehicle had suffered gunshot wounds to the back and buttocks, while one passenger in the back seat had been shot in the leg and another in the neck.
One of the passengers told police he had contacted Rodriguez through Snapchat to set up a drug deal. When the groups met at the church at 1780 North 165 East, the victim said Rodriguez got into his car "to proceed with the deal."
While in the car, another suspect exited Rodriguez's vehicle and "approached the rear driver side with a rifle," the probable cause affidavit states. "The suspect put the rifle inside the window and demanded the "dope" and threatened to shoot."
When two of the victims grabbed the rifle a struggle ensued and shots were fired, injuring three of the passengers. As the victims attempted to flee the scene, one of the brothers allegedly shot at the back of the car with a hand gun.
The victims drove to a friend's house where the passenger in the back seat that had been shot in the neck died of his injuries.
Later Wednesday night, a juvenile called Orem dispatch saying he wanted to turn himself in and would be brought to the police department by his mother. The juvenile admitted to the incident, saying his brother, Sidney, had set up the drug deal, but was unaware of any plans to rob the victims.
The boy also admitted to being the suspect with the rifle and also fired at the victims' car as it drove away.
The juvenile suspect told police that he and his brother, along with a third passenger identified as Chance Nuttall, drove to Lincoln Beach where they threw "the guns into the lake." Nuttall turned himself in Thursday afternoon but police have not said whether he has been arrested.
Unaware that his brother had already turned himself in, Rodriguez was later taken into custody and admitted to his participation in the set up of the drug deal and premeditated robbery, but would not divulge who he was with.
Once learning that his brother had spoken with police and told them that he had acted alone, the affidavit says "Sidney then changes his story from what he said at the beginning of this being a premeditated robbery and says that his juvenile brother is telling the truth and that he did not know that his brother was planning on robbing the victims. Only moments after saying this, Sidney again states that this wasn't supposed to go down this way and no one was supposed to get hurt then blames the victims for grabbing the gun which caused shots to be fired. The way that Sydney stated this, indicated that this was a planned robbery that wasn't supposed to end with someone getting hurt."
