Teen arrested in St. George following shooting in Salt Lake City that left 1 dead, 4 injured

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ST. GEORGE — A teen is in custody in Washington County on a felony warrant issued in connection with a drive-by shooting that killed one man and left four others critically injured last year in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City Police patrol vehicle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Dec. 29, 2021 | Photo courtesy of the Salt Lake City Police Department, St. George News

St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell told St. George News the arrest stems from a call to emergency dispatch reporting that a suspect who was wanted in connection with an incident up north was in St. George. When officers responded to the reported location, they arrested 19-year-old Felix Issara, who was then booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility shortly after 7:30 p.m.

“The call came in and our officers responded right away, so he was taken into custody quickly,” Mitchell said.

The warrant for Issara’s arrest was first submitted to Third District Court by the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Homicide Division and was signed on Wednesday.

The no-bail warrant was filed in connection with a shooting reported shortly before 2 a.m. in Salt Lake City on June 5, 2021, when officers were dispatched to what was initially reported as a “shots fired” call on North General Drive.

Police arrived to find a man, later identified Sean Amone, who suffered two gunshot wounds to the head and died at the scene, according to the medical examiner’s findings incorporated into the affidavit filed with the courts.

Officers also found four other men who sustained gunshot wounds and all were transported to area hospitals in critical condition.

Through the course of the investigation, officers in Salt Lake City spoke to one of the men who sustained two gunshot wounds during the drive-by. The man told police that minutes before the shooting, he was at the residence on General Drive dropping off a bike when he and two other men heard “a loud pop,” the report states.

It wasn’t until the witness hit the ground that he realized he had been shot in the leg and also the hand. He also reportedly told officers he had looked up to see the other two men he was talking to also lying on the ground and both were “gasping for air.” The third man, the witness said, identified as Amone, was lying on the curb where he died shortly thereafter.

The second man who was also transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds was interviewed by detectives and said the night before, Floyd Nau, one of the men transported with gunshot wounds, held a graduation party in the Trolley Square area of Salt Lake City that was scheduled to end at 1 a.m. the following morning, according to the report.

At 12:30 a.m., however, the guests heard shots being fired which “scared everybody off,” the report states, so the witness took two family members home and arranged to return to Amone’s house with the bicycle, which is when they noticed a white car with tinted windows drive by playing loud rap music.

According to the report, several minutes later, that same vehicle passed by a second time, which the witness said was when the group heard the shots, and when he looked up he saw a “dark-skinned hand holding a black pistol out of the car window.” The man sustained a gunshot wound to his hip and another bullet punctured his lung.

Police say the two remaining victims sustained gunshot wounds that traveled to their chests and both were rushed into surgery with critical injuries.

Several other witnesses were also interviewed and provided a similar account, which corroborated the information obtained during the investigation.

According to the report, the number of shots fired led investigators to believe there may have been a second shooter. Detectives also learned it was a white Dodge Avenger that passed by the house twice that night. They also learned the shots were fired in rapid succession for 5-10 seconds.

Stock image for illustrative purposes only | Photo by Artus/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News

At the scene of the shooting, officers examined the bullet strikes reported at a nearby residence, noting one of the bullets struck a glass door to the rear of the home, while multiple bullets penetrated several walls inside of the residence, causing considerable damage.

During a canvass of the neighborhood, officers obtained security footage from several homes that showed a white Dodge Avenger with tinted windows and distinctive wheel flares driving by at the time of the shooting.

Investigators also collected shell casings fired from two separate firearms.

Shortly after the shooting, officers set up a containment area to prevent any vehicles from leaving the neighborhood undetected, which is when officers stopped a white Dodge Avenger with three occupants, one of which was Issara who was arrested in St. George on Wednesday.

Officers also learned of a fourth man who was dropped off at the hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound he suffered during the graduation party hours earlier.

Authorities say they also believe it was Issara who drove the Dodge during the incident and was the only suspect who was at the residence where the Bushmaster AR-15 – the primary weapon reportedly used during the shooting – was found hidden inside a closet during a search of the home. Hence, investigators surmised Issara was the only suspect who had access to the weapon and then concealed it.

Officers also searched the Dodge and recovered a black ski mask and several .223 shell casings that reportedly matched the bullets fired from the AR-15  recovered during a search of the Dokos Court residence.

Police say two of the suspects, Isidore Banganaya and Emmanuel Mading, who was 15 years old at the time, are believed to have been involved in the shooting but neither has been officially charged.

The report also states that Issara poses a substantial danger to the community and the surviving victims based on the facts of this case, and because he was also one of the suspects present in the vehicle, he would have known that a crime, “particularly a shooting and/or a homicide,” had just been committed.

Moreover, the affidavit said, the suspect took part in a violent crime that left five individuals shot, one of whom was killed, as well as substantial evidence to support the charge of obstruction of justice “with the underlying criminal conduct forming the basis of the charge being homicide,” adding that Issara not only provided transportation to and from the scene but also hid the primary weapon used in the crime.

Court records also show that Issara has known gang ties and has been committing crimes since he was a juvenile, including an incident where he was charged with vehicle theft, followed by a strong-arm robbery one month later – both crimes police allege the suspect committed when he was 17. Those cases are still pending in juvenile court. Detectives in Salt Lake City requested that Issara be held without bail, a request that was approved when the no-bail warrant was signed.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and Issara remains in custody at Purgatory Correctional Facility without bail.

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.

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