Two men were shot at a party near Lincoln beach road close to the south end of Utah Lake Sunday night. 

According to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, four deputies responded to a report of a shooting at what the 911 caller described as a “Mexican party” a few minutes after 9 p.m. on Sunday.

At the scene, deputies discovered that two men had been shot in the incident, and evidence suggested that both individuals had been injured by the same gunshot. 

A 25-year-old man was shot through the arm and according to the UCSO, his injuries were non-life threatening, and he is reported to be in fair condition. The second man injured in the incident was also in his mid-twenties and was struck by the bullet in the lower abdomen. 

“He was in critical condition and along with an ambulance a medical helicopter was called,”  reads a press release from the UCSO. “The second victim was flown to Utah Valley Hospital.  Sunday night he underwent surgery and is in critical but stable condition.”

Several thousand people were in attendance at the party but, according to the UCSO, most of them began to leave after the shooting occurred. Of those that remained, several witnesses gave descriptions to police of who they believed to be the shooter, as well as the woman he was with and the car that they drove away from the scene of the shooting. 

A deputy spoke to the suspects as they left the scene, but was not yet aware of the description given by witnesses of the suspects and their car. 

“When he heard the description he realized he had just spoken to them so he and others left to find that car and the suspects.” reads a press release from the UCSO. “The suspects and their car were located several miles away and were stopped.  The driver and passenger were taken into custody and later interviewed.”

The driver of the car was Orem resident Cesar Matias Sevilla-Aleman, 25. He was accompanied by an unnamed 45-year-old woman. Both were interviewed, but were not forthcoming about Sunday night’s events, according to UCSO.

Sevilla-Aleman is currently being held awaiting extradition to Denver, where there is a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear on a weapon offense. He is also being held on a detainer by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The unnamed woman was released from police custody.

According to the UCSO, once detectives have reviewed the evidence from Sunday they intend to add new booking charges for Sevilla-Aleman.

“In this situation where they have the ICE detainer holding him as well as the NCIC warrant out of Denver Colorado, both of those are no bail situations, so he’s not going to be going anywhere,” said Sgt. Spencer Cannon, the public information officer for UCSO. “So they’re trying to be a bit more deliberate in making sure they get the charges correct before they book him on them.”

According to Cannon, the UCSO is familiar with these kinds of parties, often called “Mexican rodeos.”

“They have them a couple of times a year somewhere in Utah County… as an event, overall, they’re usually pretty festive atmosphere, they can be a lot of fun,” he said. “The thing that really creates a problem is a couple of things, this one was not a permitted event. … It did not have a permit at all to have the function, and they do serve alcohol, they did not have a permit to do that.”

According to Cannon, what really set this event apart from those held in the past, however, was the presence of a gun.

“A person’s an idiot to bring a gun and do something like that for whatever reason. Now whether they had an argument of a person felt disrespected or whatever, bringing a gun to a situation like that and then pulling it out and actually shooting somebody, that’s just completely uncalled for,” Cannon said.

Officers from the Santaquin Police, Spanish Fork Police, Payson Police, and Utah State Parks, also responded to the initial incident.

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