This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City man has been accused of shooting another man in the face in a dispute over stolen Xanax.
Charges were filed Monday in the March 23 shooting in West Valley City. The man took a gun to the victim's home at Overlook Point Apartments, near 4600 South 2970 West, police wrote; witnesses who were in the same car as the man during the drive to the apartment said the man claimed the victim had taken the man's Xanax, and one of the bullets was for the victim.
At the apartment, the victim was showing off more than $1,000 in cash and bragging about how much money he had, police wrote. The suspect arrived and went into a bedroom with the victim while other acquaintances were on the balcony. After a gunshot rang out, the suspect came out of the bedroom; the victim's roommate and another man wrestled with the suspect for the gun, which fired several more times, police wrote.
The suspect fled, and the victim was found bleeding profusely. He had been shot through the face, which caused significant blood loss and collapsed his carotid artery. The victim was in critical condition when he was taken to a hospital, but he since has improved and is expected to survive.
Police took custody of the suspect later that day when they saw him trying to leave his home with a bag in tow. Inside the bag officers found more than $1,500 in bloody cash, blood-stained clothing, and an empty gun case for a .380 Cobra, investigators wrote.
The gun found at the scene was a .380 Cobra, police wrote.
The suspect was charged Monday with attempted murder and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies; second-degree felony obstructing justice; third-degree felony use of a firearm by a restricted person; and two counts of felony discharge of a firearm, one in the second-degree and one in the third-degree.