Police: Suspected shooters said tenants disrespected them

Tenants that chased off a group of men trying to graffiti mailboxes on Woodside Drive early Saturday morning, angered the vandals who returned an hour later and opened fire on the complex, according to a Carson City Sheriff's Department arrest report Tuesday.

No one was injured.

John Clayton Turner, 19, and Ricardo David Llamas 20, are each being held on $250,000 bail, raised from $75,000 each by Carson City Judge John Tatro during a hearing Tuesday morning.

Turner is jailed on suspicion of accessory to attempted murder and Llamas on suspicion of attempted murder.

The suspected gang members were arrested at 6:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of North Edmonds Drive on Monday afternoon.

Detective Daniel Gonzales said that tenants at the Stanton Arms apartments were outside of their units around midnight Saturday when they allegedly saw Turner, Llamas and three others walk up to cluster mailboxes shaking a spray paint can. Fearing the group would tag the boxes with graffiti, the tenants in the East Carson City neighborhood notorious for gang activity, chased them away, said Gonzales.

An hour later, as a tenant was throwing out trash at a complex Dumpster, he heard a rustling behind a fence along Fairview Drive. Then gunshots rang out.

The tenant fell to the ground and two parked vehicles and a stairway railing were hit by the bullets, Gonzales said.

He said witness information led investigators to a home on Village Drive where Turner and Llamas were allegedly partying before and after the shooting. Though the two men were not there, police arrested tenant Angel Perez, 23, on suspicion of felony accessory to attempted murder and four counts of ex-felon in possession of a firearm.

His bail was also set at $250,000.

Officers allegedly recovered two .22-caliber rifles, a pistol and a semi-automatic handgun wrapped in a bandana and partially buried in the backyard, according to the report.

The weapon from the backyard "matched the caliber of shell casings found at the shooting scene," wrote Gonzales in the report.

Two 18-year-old men, suspected by police to have participated in the graffiti incidents, were also arrested on suspicion of violating juvenile probation.

By Monday, information led officers to an apartment in the 1400 block of North Edmonds Drive where Turner and Llamas were arrested without incident.

According to the arrest report for Turner, he allegedly told officers that he and friends were "tagging" buildings in the Stanton Arms area and they were confronted by people who told them to stop.

"John said this made him and his friends mad so he went to his house on Long Street and got his gun which he gave to Ricardo," the report states.

In the report on Llamas' arrest, Detective Dena Lacy wrote that Llamas said he, Perez, Turner and the two teens decided to go "tag" over some rival gang graffiti on Woodside Drive.

"He said they were chased away by about 15 people," Lacy wrote in the report. "Ricardo said he was mad and told John he wanted to get a gun."

The two then allegedly returned to the complex and Llamas opened fire, according to the report.

"I asked Ricardo what he was thinking when he was going to John's house to get the gun," Lacy wrote in the report. "He said he was mad that they disrespected him so he wanted to do something about it."

A preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 11.

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Sheriff Kenny Furlong said he is outraged by the actions of two individuals who opened fire at the Stanton Arms apartment complex on Saturday morning.

John Turner and Ricardo Llamas, both 19, were arrested in the incident.

"I don't know how to articulate how angry this is making me," he said Tuesday afternoon. "We ask people in this community to help us help them, and these thugs turn around and make this into a violent situation. It bothers the holy hell out of me."

Turner and Llamas were booked into the Carson City Jail Monday afternoon, held on suspicion of attempted murder in the shooting of several tenants at the complex.

"People are only trying to make their own neighborhoods as safe as they can," Furlong said. "People are just trying to do a good thing and they were turned on."

Furlong said he hopes people aren't discouraged from deterring crime in their neighborhoods because of this.

"The one best request I can make to the public is, we must make our cases through the courts. A willingness to step forward helps us.

"...The gangs in this town, we cannot tolerate them in our town, in our residences. If people use tactics to intimidate others, I will do whatever I have to, to stop it."