PHOENIX (AP) — Three Phoenix men are in custody for firing shots into the air to celebrate the new year.
Police say 32-year-old Louis Martinez, 22-year-old Ernesto Mejia De La Cueva and 63-year-old Jose Garcia Lopez are being held on suspicion of unlawful discharge of a firearm within city limits.
Mejia De La Cueva allegedly fired 10 rounds from a shotgun, telling officers he wanted “to make noise for the new year.”
For the past decade, Phoenix police have arrested anyone caught discharging a weapon within the city limits on New Year’s Eve for violating “Shannon’s Law.”
In 1999, a stray bullet fired into the air a mile away killed 14-year-old Shannon Smith in her backyard.
Police say they received 264 “shots fired” calls this New Year’s Eve compared to 759 such calls in 2002.
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