A man was shot while lying in bed after a bullet pierced through the wall of his home near the Salt River bed, where illegal shooting activities have continued despite community concerns.
Juan, who works at a farm operated by Brandon Shelton, was hit in the arm by a stray bullet in April while resting in his bedroom.
"This right here is where the bullet hole went in the other night. And Juan's bed is just on the other side of this," said Shelton.
The incident marks an escalation of a dangerous situation that has plagued West Valley residents for months, with people driving 4x4 vehicles into the Salt/Gila River bed areas to shoot firearms.
Shelton has documented numerous instances of gunfire near his farm, capturing videos of shooting incidents in May. He fears something worse will happen if the problem isn’t solved soon.
"They're just shooting at random. There's a guy that sleeps in this house on the other side of this wall. There are babies that live in this house. I just don't know what else we can do," Shelton said.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has now initiated "active patrols" in some riverbed areas in response to the shooting.
"While we have been doing these ops we have been successful on mitigating a lot of these issues out there," said Lieutenant Elias Miranda with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
However, Miranda says that the problem isn't fixed and is difficult to contain across the large area that spans multiple jurisdictions.
"Like all of the agencies, we're short-staffed, that's not an excuse, we are trying to find ways to help each other out to find issues," Miranda said.
Lieutenant Miranda says he knows the gunfire is concerning and frustrating to the community, but encourages all to continue contacting MSCO when they see or hear anything concerning.
Shelton says he’s tired of everyone treating their communities like it’s a shooting range.
"These people, they come from the city, and they think this is the Wild West. This isn't the Wild West, this is where we live at," he said.
This follows previous reporting on residents' concerns about gunfire in the area, including incidents where bullets struck homes in Avondale neighborhoods adjacent to the river bottom.
The ABC15 newsroom has received numerous messages about these kinds of incidents.
“They're scared, you know," one mother told us about her family living nearby. "But it's just part of our life now, because we don't see a resolution. We don't see how it's going to stop."
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