Farmington Man Faces Aggravated Assault

PRAIRIE GROVE — Aaron Martinez, 47, of Farmington, was arrested April 6 in connection with felony aggravated assault following a reported incident on Ervan Beeks Road, according to a Prairie Grove police incident report.

Accordng to the report, a Prairie Grove police officer was dispatched because of an armed person call on Ervan Beeks Road. The caller, a woman, stated that an older Hispanic man wearing an orange and yellow neon shirt in a white Chevy Tahoe pointed a gun at her. The caller, a woman, said she later heard gun shots coming north from her residence.

Officer Uriel Paredes said he was familiar with a residence in the area because officers have responded there on numerous calls and that there have been guns involved in the past.

According to the police report, the officer went to the residence and saw a white SUV. A man matching the description from the caller emerged from the back of the house. He was later identified as Aaron Martinez. The report said that Martinez became agitated, acted aggressively and put his hands in his pockets several times. After several discussions and disagreements between Martinez and another woman on the property, Martinez was placed in handcuffs and informed that he was detained.

The woman who called the police said the white SUV was in front of her on Ervan Beeks Road, pulled over slightly and stopped. She began to go around it and said that as she drove next to the SUV, she saw the driver holding a gun out of the window. She stated that as she drove by, the man raised the gun in her direction, according to the report. She said she was unsure what the suspect did with the gun afterward because she drove off in a hurry.

The officer went back to Martinez’s residence, read Martinez his Miranda rights and asked him about the incident. According to the report, Martinez denied being involved and said he had been home for two hours. He also said he drove a small Honda, not a white SUV.

Based on the victim’s statement and information from a neighbor, the report states that the officer placed Martinez under arrest in connection with aggravated assault and he was taken to Washington County Detention Center. The report said police did not try to recover items at that time because the family was very uncooperative and “officer unfriendly.”

At the detention center, Martinez changed some of his story, according to the report, and said he did leave to go back to his uncle’s house and came back when his uncle was not home. Martinez told police he “may” have pointed his gun when he was driving back from his uncle’s house. He said the victim was “honking and cussing at him,” so he pointed the gun out of the window.

Martinez was turned over to the detention center staff to be booked and processed.