COLUMBUS, Wis. (WKOW) -- Columbus police say a fight led to a Columbus man being shot and killed downtown in the early morning hours of July 4.
During a news conference Friday morning, Police Chief Dennis Weiner identified the victim as Jose De Jesus Fuentes Hernandez, 42, of Columbus.
He says around 1:30 a.m. July 4, a police officer was investigating what he thought was fireworks. At the same time, several 911 calls came in about a fight.
When the officer got to the 100 block of S. Ludington Street in downtown Columbus, he found Hernandez had been shot. He was taken to Prairie Ridge Health where he died.
Police used video camera footage to identify a suspect, Jonathan Javier Luna, 22, of Columbus. They went to his home, and he wasn't there, but they were able to recover some evidence.
Chief Weiner says officers were able to identify a location in Madison where Luna was, and he was arrested about 12 hours after the shooting.
Luna is currently at the Columbia County Jail, booked on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide.
Weiner says the gun believed to be used in the shooting was found along a path officers suspect Luna took after leaving the scene. Police also found several spent shelling casings at the scene of the shooting. A business in the area had a broken window, and a projectile was recovered from the grill of a vehicle parked about 100 feet away.
Weiner says this was not a random act of violence and they are still investigating. Though he acknowledged that a motive for the shooting may never be known, as its only direct victim died. Any insight into the alleged shooter's mind is up to that person to share.
Weiner said officers had not yet interviewed Luna, but would do so soon after the press conference concluded.
He went on to thank the community for their support and help in providing video surveilance. The latter he described as an integral factor in making an arrest.
"We all, to a degree, take it personally," Weiner said of the shooting, noting that he grew up in Columbus. "Because in smaller towns you take your safety, you take the community for granted. And to a degree you should, you should feel safe in your community. I don't think this incident lessens this level of security or comfort that people should have here in town."
Despite all of the news delivered at the press conference, the chief stressed that there should be continued focus on the fact that a family was feeling loss.
"One thing that I don't want anybody to overlook is that there's a family grieving the loss of life due to gun violence," Weiner said. "I don't think that sits well with any of us."
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