Police make arrest in fatal shooting
FAYETTEVILLE — Police used video to identify the person they say is responsible for shooting five people, one fatally, during an altercation last week near Lake Fayetteville.
Gilberto Gordillo, 19, of 1406 Powell St. in Springdale, was arrested Wednesday on preliminary charges of capital murder and four counts of attempted capital murder in relation to the shooting that killed Christian Rodriguez-Barroso, 18, of Springdale and injured four others Feb. 15.
Gordillo was being held in the Washington County jail on Thursday in lieu of $750,000 bond. Arraignment is set for March 15 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Capital murder is punishable by the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Fayetteville police received a call from Springdale police about 11:15 p.m. Feb. 15 reporting shots fired in the area of Powell Street in Springdale and Lakeview Drive in Fayetteville, according to Sgt. Stephen Mauk, public information officer for Fayetteville police.
Police found a dead man, later identified as Rodriguez-Barroso, lying in the road at 599 E. Lakeview Drive, according to a preliminary police report. The address is the Lake Fayetteville Environmental Studies Center, according to police. Video from a nearby residence captured the shooting.
A large number of vehicles in the gravel parking lot at the environmental studies center are seen on the video. Two groups of people then gathered in the middle of the parking lot and a fight broke out, according to the report.
The groups separated, and individuals ran to their vehicles or away from the area on foot, according to the report. Multiple vehicles began to leave the parking lot through the only exit. Gunfire was heard and muzzle flashes were seen on the video.
Rodriguez-Barroso ran toward the exit and climbed into the bed of a nearby pickup. The pickup headed north on Powell Street as an individual is seen on video firing on it, according to the report.
Another camera angle showed Rodriguez-Barroso fall from the moving pickup into the street, according to the report. Video showed the person who had just fired on the pickup leaving the scene in a vehicle that drove around Rodriguez-Barroso and headed north on Powell Street.
A witness told police before the groups met at the environmental studies center, Gordillo said he was going home to get some guns to bring to the fight. Witnesses said they saw Gordillo with an AR-15 style rifle just before the fight.
Five witnesses told police they saw an individual standing near the exit firing a gun in the direction where Rodriguez-Barroso was killed, according to the report. Two said they saw Gordillo firing an AR-15.
One witness said he saw Gordillo retrieve an AR-15 from his Dodge Challenger and heard shots immediately after. Once the shooting stopped, he saw Gordillo get into the car with the rifle, according to the report. A witness in the car told police Gordillo handed him the rifle.
Gordillo later told witnesses he thought he had killed someone at the environmental studies center, according to the report.
In video footage obtained by police, Gordillo was seen wearing the same clothing before and during the shooting that was described by witnesses, according to the report. Cellphone video from the incident also showed Gordillo in the same clothing.
Mauk said four people were taken to hospitals — three to a hospital in Fayetteville and one to a hospital in Springdale — with injures that did not appear to life-threatening. All of the victims were between 18 and 20 years old and lived in Springdale, he said.