ST. GEORGE — A man charged with attempted murder in St. George was taken into custody Monday by police in Mesquite, Nevada, in connection with a shooting that took place near a local cemetery over the summer.
As previously reported by St. George News, the incident that led to the arrest was a shooting near Tonaquint Cemetery in St. George on July 10, 2021, involving injuries to a 19-year-old man.
The affidavit filed in support of Monday’s arrest states the incident was initially reported as an accident, but detectives later learned the teen was shot in the face, according to the affidavit.
The man reportedly told responding officers he did not know who had shot him but went on to explain it was “a drug deal gone bad” and then showed police a bag containing drug items.
The teen was then transported to St. George Regional Hospital by ambulance and underwent emergency surgery, and it would be another 19 days before detectives could interview him further.
During this time, detectives processed the scene, and several items of evidence were collected from injured man’s vehicle, including the cells phones and other drug-related items that were initially shown to police. Detectives also obtained a number of search warrants while the cell phones were sent to the digital forensics crime lab to be analyzed.
Through the course of the investigation, detectives learned the injured man had been communicating with an individual on a social media application and had allegedly made arrangements to meet the suspect at the location near the cemetery where the shooting ultimately took place. Officers also state that some of the account information had been deleted immediately after the incident, some of which was recovered during a forensic search of the cell phone data.
On July 29, detectives met with the teen, who again reportedly told officers he had never met the individual on social media before, nor did he know the identity of the person who had ultimately shot him.
According to the affidavit, shortly after the suspect showed up, he pulled a gun on the 19-year-old and told him “I’m not messing around” and then demanded the drugs, at which point the teen also pulled a gun out from underneath the seat, which he said was unloaded at the time. The suspect appeared to be surprised, the teen claimed, which is when the suspect’s gun went off, but the first bullet went in front of the teen and struck the door.
The teen told officers he knew he “needed to get out of there,” the detective noted in the report, and he put his car in reverse and looked over his right shoulder to back out, which is when the suspect reached inside of the car and fired the second shot that struck him in the jaw. He also said he was so focused on getting out of the parking lot that he had not realized he was shot until he had driven a short distance away.
Immediately after the shooting, the teen attempted to flag down help, saying the window fell out of the car door as soon as he opened it, which was the report given by the witnesses that originally led police to believe it was an accident.
He also told police he was unaware a third round had been fired until later when he was able to look at his car. The statements made during the interview were consistent with what was found while processing the scene, where detectives recovered two 9mm bullet casings found on the ground in the parking lot area and a third similar casing was recovered from inside of the teen’s car.
The teen’s .22-caliber handgun was also collected by police and was not loaded at the time it was recovered from inside of the car.
Through the course of the investigation officers obtained additional information once the search warrants were executed, and shortly thereafter the suspect was identified as Shane Cameron Palomo, who was 18 at the time of the alleged shooting and fit the description of the individual suspected in the incident.
Detectives also learned Palomo lived in Mesquite and reached out to the FBI for assistance in locating cell tower information. On Monday the suspect was charged with first-degree attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Mesquite Police Sgt. Wyatt Oliver said the Mesquite Police Department was advised of the warrant by detectives in St. George. When officers in Nevada obtained information on the suspect’s place of employment, they responded to store in Mesquite, Oliver said, and a few minutes after 4 p.m. PST, the suspect was taken into custody without incident.
Oliver went on to say the suspect was being processed into the Mesquite Detention Center and then would be transported to the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, since he is facing a felony charge, where he will remain while he awaits extradition to Utah.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.