SPRINGDALE -- A shooting early Friday left one teenager dead, sent two other people to the hospital and led to the arrest of a 17-year-old boy, police said.
Police found Fabian Rodriguez, 18, of Springdale, with a gunshot wound at 3:21 a.m. in the yard of 32 Applegate Drive, said Derek Hudson, Springdale police spokesman. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Hudson said.
A 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old woman with gunshot wounds arrived at the hospital shortly after the shooting at Applegate Apartments, police said.
Police would not release the 14-year-old's name but confirmed the woman is Savannah Smith of Springdale. Smith and the boy had wounds that aren't life-threatening, Hudson said. The boy was shot twice, according to a news release.
Smith wasn't listed at the hospital at 4 p.m. Friday, said hospital spokesman Pat Driscoll.
A relative, Christine Wilson of California, said late Friday afternoon that Smith was shot in the shoulder and was in recovery after surgery.
Police said the 17-year-old boy, who lived with his mother, told them he saw people outside "banging on the window and one was holding a machete," according to the news release. The boy fired a gun through his window and hit two people, Hudson said.
He then chased them, firing more shots as the teens fled, police said. He also shot into a car where Smith was in the driver's seat, according to the release. Police didn't say what kind of gun was fired.
Investigators inspected a broken window at the back of the apartment Friday and walked around the front yard's wooden privacy fence, where someone had written "Are we friends?"
Police arrested the 17-year-old boy on charges of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree battery and possession of a handgun by a minor, according to the news release. He was at the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center on Friday with bail set at $250,000, Washington County prosecutor Matt Durrett wrote in an email.
Because the boy is a minor, his name will not be released unless the prosecutor decides to charge him as an adult. That decision is expected Monday, Durrett said.
Neighbors said they didn't know the names of anyone involved in the shooting.
"We just mind our own business," said Esperanza Mejia, a neighbor.
Neighbors said they were awakened by five or six gunshots and called police.
Denise Ponder of Fayetteville was staying in the building next door with her daughter, Bailey Johnson, and her daughter's baby, when she heard three gunshots, a pause, and then two more shots, she said. One of the shots passed through the door of Ponder's SUV parked in front of the apartments.
A handgun was found in a nearby drainage ditch and a machete was found near Rodriguez, Hudson said.
On Friday afternoon, investigators searched the apartment. Cold rain fell on investigators analyzing what happened outside.
Police taped off the crime scene early Friday and bagged a woman's shoe, what looked like a pipe or weapon and possibly bullet casings in the street, said Bill and Loretta Stafford, who moved to the apartment across the street in January.
"I opened the windows this morning and saw all those cops and tape, and it scared me," Bill Stafford said.
The apartment where the shooting started is rented by Hilda Islas, according to the Springdale Housing Authority. Hudson wouldn't confirm whether Islas is the boy's mother.
The 17-year-old boy was home with his mother at the time of the shooting, Hudson said. Neighbors said other children live in the home; however, Hudson wouldn't confirm if other children live there or if they were present at the time of the shooting.
Hudson said police have been called to the apartment complex previously for graffiti, gunshot sounds and criminal mischief, but not a shooting such as this. Police are investigating if the shooting is connected to gang activity, he added.
Loretta Stafford said the couple heard gunshots and what sounded like a chase three weeks ago, but they didn't call the police.
The apartments are next to Jones Elementary School, but no one was at the school campus at the time of the shooting, said Rick Schaeffer, Springdale Public Schools spokesman.
Metro on 03/14/2015