DRAPER, Utah — Draper Police continue to look for a suspect they believe is responsible for an early Sunday morning shooting at an Airbnb that killed two people.
Just before 3:00 a.m., police responded to reports of a shooting in the area of Vista Way and Cranberry Hill Drive, where a party had been taking place at a home rented through Airbnb.
Sebastian Arismendi is from Layton and was at the party.
He says when he was leaving with his friends, someone started throwing beer bottles. Arismendi says another guy called that person out for doing that, and an argument ensued.
At some point after that, he heard a gunshot go off. He says he was able to protect his friends, telling them to duck and run to their truck. However, Arismendi says a person just footsteps away from him got hit by the gunshot.
"The guy was right behind me and I couldn't pull him down," he said.
Arismendi says he came back to tend to the person who was injured after making sure his friends were safe.
"He was unconscious, so we tried to do what we could — we lifted his head up, had to cut his hoodie off to cushion his head, keep it warm a little bit," he explained.
Arismendi also says he jumped into action to help another victim who was shot nearby.
"Then this guy over here in the Tesla, he was a bigger guy, they couldn't pull him out so I had to go over and pull him out. But they told me not to move him anymore," said Arismendi. "I was getting blood all over my arms."
It was a chaotic scene that Zachary Condor and his friend pulled up to.
"I see someone that looks like they're giving CPR to an individual that was on the ground," said Condor.
Condor says as they were making their way down the street to his house, someone came up and knocked on the window of his friend's car and started yelling.
"I don't know if they wanted to take my phone so that, you know, I couldn't record, or if they wanted to take my phone because they didn't want me to call the cops," he said. "It was kind of scary."
His dad, Daniel Condor, says they have lived in the neighborhood for 20 years.
"I hear 'pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,'" Daniel Condor said. "Probably, you know, eight shots or more."
Gunshots going off outside of his window in the early morning hours is something he says he has never heard before.
"The old adage, they say, 'Oh, it's normally a quiet neighborhood.' That's what it was. That's what it's like here, so it's like, wow," Daniel Condor said.
As for Arismendi, he says he is still trying to process the whole incident.
"We definitely lucked out," he said. "We definitely got lucky on that one since knowing how close he was to us."
A neighbor FOX 13 News spoke with says the owner of the home moved out two weeks ago and had just listed it on Airbnb.
Airbnb sent out this statement on Sunday:
"We join the Draper community in condemning this senseless gun violence. We ban parties [airbnb.com], and we have removed the booking guest from our platform as we conduct a thorough investigation. We have also reached out to the leadership of the Draper Police Department to offer our assistance as they work to find the person responsible for this criminal act.
"Additional background:
- "We have deactivated the listing as we conduct our investigation
- "We can confirm this was an unauthorized party -- meaning the host was not aware of the party and did not consent to it"
On Monday morning, police announced that a second person who was shot at the party had died at the hospital from their injuries.
In the same statement, police identified the victims as Austin Terry Powell, 27 and Jonathan July Fuentes, 21.
There are no suspects in custody as police continue to investigate.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Draper Police at 801-576-6500.
