Police arrest 4th man in Exchange Place fights, shooting

SALT LAKE CITY — A fourth man has been arrested in connection with a fight and a shooting in the Exchange Place area of downtown Salt Lake City on Aug. 10.

Jowil Charles, 31, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of 10 counts of firing a gun causing serious injury and marijuana possession. He is the fourth man police have identified as being involved in either a fight at a local business before the shooting or a second fight that culminated with the shooting.

Police, however, say they are still sorting out the level of everyone’s involvement in the complex investigation.

Just before 1 a.m. on Aug. 10 near 320 S. State, a fight was reported at the On Top Lounge, followed by multiple gunshots nearby. Whether the initial fight and the second fight with the shooting are connected remained under investigation Wednesday, police said.

After arriving at the scene, detectives followed a blood trail that led to a parking garage across the street from where the shooting took place.

“This blood trail continued to a silver Lexus SUV,” the affidavit states. “Blood was observed in plain view throughout the interior of this vehicle, indicating the victim had got inside the vehicle after the shooting. The victim in critical condition was located by officers lying next to this silver Lexus SUV.”

A police spokesman on Wednesday said the 30-year-old victim, whose name has not been released, is also believed to have fired shots during the second confrontation. The SUV the man was found next to “was associated” with Charles, according to the affidavit.

Salt Lake police say Charles “fired multiple rounds at the 30-year-old man and into a crowd of people.” He was found on Tuesday, was pulled over near 4900 S. State and was arrested by police.

Devin Bradley, 30, and Raymond Gallegos, 22, both from Ogden, were arrested last week as part of the overall investigation. Police believe Gallegos was involved in the initial fight at the On Top Lounge but was not involved in the shooting. Bradley was involved in the second fight, according to investigators, but his involvement in the shooting remains under investigation.

Police also announced a 32-year-old man had been arrested in the case but they did not name him at the time, saying charges against him were pending as detectives tried to determine his involvement in either fight or the shooting.

However, when Alexander James Ross, 32, was charged on Aug. 19 in 3rd District Court in connection with causing a serious crash and drug-related crimes, prosecutors noted in charging documents that “Taylorsville police were pursuing a suspect wanted in connection to a shooting in Salt Lake City.”

Ross was driving a Dodge Challenger and going 89 mph on the Bangerter Highway when he tried to exit at 7000 South, “lost control, passed over the median into oncoming traffic and struck” another car, the charges state. A man and woman inside the vehicle were injured. The man was taken to a local hospital in life-threatening condition to be treated for “10 broken ribs, bleeding to the spleen which had to be removed, a fractured orbital socket, an aorta contusion, and a collapsed lung,” and his “blood pressure was near cardiac arrest levels,” charging documents state.

Ross ran from the crash scene and went inside a store at nearby Jordan Landing, where officers found and arrested him. In his wrecked car, police found vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana, ecstasy and drug paraphernalia, the charges allege.

Charles was also charged Tuesday in a separate case in Davis County with drug possession with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony; unlawful possession of a bank card, a third-degree felony; failing to stop at the command of police, a class A misdemeanor; interfering with an officer and marijuana possession, class B misdemeanors; and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, a class C misdemeanor.