CEDAR CITY — Six teenagers were arrested on Tuesday following the second of two recent drive-by shootings in a neighborhood northwest of Cedar City.

The five suspects who are of adult age were all booked into Iron County Jail early Tuesday morning. They have been identified as Gerardo Cadena, 19, Matthew Lucero, 19, Garrian Perkins, 18, Miguel Cruz, 18, and Gabriel Monzon, 18.

Additionally, a sixth male suspect who is 17 years old was also arrested and taken to a juvenile detention facility.

Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter provided Cedar City News with details about the incident on Thursday, shortly before and during a news conference at the sheriff’s office. 

The location where the shots were reported is just south of Midvalley Road in the Peak View subdivision at 2525 West, in an unincorporated area of Iron County west of Enoch City.

Carpenter said Tuesday’s shooting was the second such incident at the same address in as many weeks, the other one happening on Feb. 12.

“On Feb. 12, at 7:17 in the morning, we were called and informed that at approximately 1:30 that morning, the residents had heard popping noises consistent with gunshots,” Carpenter said.

Deputies responded and found several bullet holes in the structure, including in the walls of two bedrooms. Eleven shell casings were recovered from the scene, Carpenter said.

Then, just over two weeks later, at 1:43 a.m. Tuesday, dispatchers received another call of shots fired at the same address. Responding deputies found seven shell casings at that scene, Carpenter said.

Nobody was injured in either incident, he noted. 

A short time after Tuesday morning’s incident, Carpenter said, an Iron County Sheriff’s deputy observed a black Jeep Cherokee run a stop sign at 2200 North and 2300 West. He then conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle near 1500 North Airport Road.

“The vehicle was found to be occupied by six individuals,” Carpenter said.

In addition to the driver, who was identified as Cadena, the other occupants were identified in charging documents as Lucero, Perkins, Cruz, Monzon and the unnamed 17-year-old juvenile.

“As we processed the vehicle, two firearms were located that appear to match the shell casings from the scene,” Carpenter added, noting that one of the guns was a .22-caliber pistol and the other was a .300 Blackout rifle. 

Those two guns matched the calibers of shell casings found at the scene of the second drive-by shooting but were different from those found at the first one two weeks earlier, Carpenter added.

During the course of their interviews with investigators, the suspects confirmed that they had been involved in the shots being fired at that residence that morning, Carpenter said.

According to the probable cause statements filed in support of their arrests, the suspects told police they knew they were going to “fix a problem” or “slide on an opp,” which means to confront a rival or enemy.

All five adult defendants continue to be held without bail in Iron County Jail. Four of them made their initial appearances in 5th District Court on Wednesday, while the other made his on Thursday. Each faces one or more counts of discharge of a firearm by shooting at an occupied building, a second-degree felony. 

Because the alleged crime involved three or more suspects acting in concert with one another, the gang enhancement statute may be applied, according to the affidavits.

Lucero, Cruz and Cadena each face seven counts of felony discharge of a firearm, while Perkins and Monzon each face one such count. Additionally, Cadena faces one count of possession or use of a controlled substance, a class C misdemeanor, while Monzon faces two class B misdemeanor counts: one for possessing or consuming alcohol as a minor and one for providing false identification to police.

Carpenter said there also appears to be a possible connection to an incident involving a report of a gun being brandished in the parking lot of Canyon View High School, after which another male juvenile was arrested Tuesday afternoon by Cedar City Police.

“The juvenile that was arrested in the Canyon View (incident) we believe is tied to this case as well,” Carpenter said. “We recovered a 9-millimeter pistol from his house, which we believe was the pistol that was used in the first drive-by shooting.

“We are waiting for ballistics to confirm that,” the sheriff added. “Depending on that and upon other evidence that comes forward, then I think that there will be other charges forthcoming.”

Carpenter emphasized that the investigation is still active and ongoing.

“We’ve served seven search warrants and we have deputies and officers who are currently out serving more warrants,” he said on Thursday. “There will be well over a dozen search warrants that have been served before the end of the day.”

Carpenter said investigators have not yet determined where the guns came from but did note that both of the weapons seized on Tuesday were illegal. The pistol had its serial number filed off, while the rifle’s trigger had been modified to enable it to be fired semiautomatically, he said.

At the conclusion of the news conference, Carpenter offered words of reassurance to the public, followed by a warning to would-be gangsters and other criminals.

“First, everybody that was involved in the shootings is currently in custody,” he said. “So we don’t believe that there’s any further threat to the community at all. However, we believe that there are still a number of actors that supported the people that were involved in this shooting.

“As we build our case, we’re going to be going after them as well,” he added. “This kind of conduct will not be tolerated in Iron County.”

After noting that Iron County has been the fastest-growing county in the state over the past year, Carpenter added:

While there are many people that are coming here to get away from some of the things that are taking place in the communities that they lived prior, we welcome them, if they want to assimilate into our community and to our culture. But if people are coming here believing that they can prey upon our citizens and that they can conduct criminal intent without repercussion, they’re very mistaken. We will go after them with every resource that we have available to us.

After the news conference ended, Iron County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Humphries thanked Cedar City Police Department and Enoch City Police Department for their assistance and cooperation.

This report is based on statements from law enforcement officials and court documents 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.

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