Snapchat video brings arrest in New Year’s Eve gunshots
An anonymous tip of a Snapchat video of the passenger in a moving car firing a gun into the air on a southeast Bend street shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve led to the arrest of an 18-year-old Bend resident and seizure of three guns – two of them stolen — as well as cocaine, police said Thursday.
Detectives got the tip on Wednesday, including the video that showed a male front-seat passenger firing a handgun out of the moving, unidentified vehicle on Southeast Ninth Street shortly before midnight Sunday, Lt. Clint Burleigh said.
Detectives investigating the illegal discharge of a firearm identified the suspect as Victor Divon Chavez, 18, and contacted him shortly after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 61000 block of Admiral Way, Burleigh said.
The detectives learned the gun used in the video was at Chavez’s home, in the 61000 block of Chikamin Drive, and went back to the home with him and located it, Burleigh said. They also determined the gun had been reported stolen from a Bend home in 2016.
During the search, detectives recovered two other firearms, a handgun reported stolen from a Sunriver home last year and a rifle of as-yet undetermined origin, Burleigh said. They also found cocaine, packaging materials and drug paraphernalia in Chavez’s room, he added.
Chavez was taken to the Deschutes County Jail and booked on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of first-degree theft (of a firearm) by receiving and cocaine manufacture, possession and delivery within 1,000 feet of a school – in this case, R.E. Jewell Elementary School.
He remained held Thursday on $90,000 bail, pending a Thursday afternoon initial court appearance.
Burleigh said Bend police wanted to remind gun owners to keep their firearms locked in secured areas when not in use, to prevent thefts and unintended injuries. He also reminded gun owners to recover the serial numbers, in case they are ever lost or stolen. Stolen guns are commonly sold or traded during illegal activities and often are moved out of the area where they were stolen, he added.
Court records show one other case involving the suspect. Chavez was charged last Jan. 30 with failure to perform the duties of a driver causing property damage, and careless driving, accused of hitting another car on that day and failing to stop at the scene. He pleaded guilty to the careless driving charge in July, with the failure to perform charge dismissed in a civil compromise, and was ordered at sentencing last month to pay a $435 fine.
