A man accused of shooting up parts of Cheyenne from an SUV with his baby in the backseat remains in jail, authorities say.
The Laramie County District Attorney charged Gerald Lopez, 28, with three misdemeanor charges Monday relating to accusations that Lopez shot his 9 mm pistol from a Trailblazer on Saturday.
The three charges are reckless endangering, child endangering and resisting arrest, which together are punishable by up to three years in jail and $2,000 in fines.
The Commotion
Cheyenne Police Department Officer Jayson Tretter at about 2 p.m. Saturday responded to a Cheyenne on a report of shots fired. The caller told police to look for a purple Chevrolet Trailblazer with Wyoming plates, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed Monday.
Tretter found the Trailblazer crossing the intersection at East 17th Street and Maxwell Avenue, headed northbound. He started following the vehicle and saw a passenger point a handgun out the window and fire off one round toward an intersection two blocks later, the affidavit alleges.
Tretter flicked on his emergency lights and conducted a high-risk traffic stop in the 2100 block of Maxwell Avenue.
The 21-year-old woman driving the Trailblazer got out of the driver’s seat and obeyed Tretter’s commands as she approached him, the affidavit says.
Lopez got out of the passenger side as the woman approached law enforcement agents.
But Lopez would not show his hands, the affidavit alleges.
“Lopez refused to comply with commands given, to show his hands and lie on his stomach,” says the document, adding that Lopez kept walking toward officers.
Eventually he sat down in the intersection but refused to lie on his stomach.
Officers tased Lopez, the affidavit says, after “continuous efforts to have him lie on his stomach.”
Baby In The Back Seat
Tretter arrested Lopez, put him in his patrol vehicle and read him his Miranda rights, the affidavit says, adding that Lopez told Tretter he’d been drinking alcohol and had fired the gun from the SUV one time.
Officers approached the Trailblazer and found a 1-year-old in the back seat and a 9 mm Glock under the passenger seat, says the affidavit. They also found four 9 mm shell casings in the vehicle.
Police found three 9 mm casings on the Van Lennen Avenue, “consistent with casings discovered in the vehicle,” the affidavit says.
A witness told police he saw Lopez standing near the driver’s side rear door of the vehicle as it was parked in front of a house on Van Lennen Avenue when the witness heard four shots fired.
Arraignment This Summer
Lopez remains in jail, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. His bond is set at $2,000 cash.
He’s set for an arraignment June 23 in Cheyenne Circuit Court on the misdemeanor charges
