Man charged with firing shots

Dalton police arrested a man Monday morning for allegedly unloading his gun during an argument.

According to an incident report, Raul Ramon Cardenas admitted to firing shots while in an argument with Julian Jesus Estrada and Anthony Edward Keefe. He told officers that he fired five or six shots. He fired some in the air; he fired the rest into the ground. He said he abandoned the gun near a stop sign when he thought he was out of ammo.

Estrada told officers the fight began because he and Cardenas got into an argument over a text message. He said Cardenas heard he was insulting him to others. The report does not say why, specifically, Estrada would do that, or what he might have said. But Estrada told an investigator that he and Cardenas agreed to a fight.

Estrada said he and Keefe began to drive toward Cardenas’ house. But on the way, they found Cardenas walking nearby. They stopped and got out and argued. Estrada said Cardenas then pulled a gun, pointed it at him and Keefe and opened fire.

Officers responded to the scene around 12:20 a.m. When they found Cardenas, according to the report, he initially denied firing any shots. He said he and Estrada simply got into an argument.

But officers took him to the police station. There, according to the report, he said he fired shots. He said he bought the gun from a friend at work.

The department charged him with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless conduct.