Police Arrest 3 For Violating Gunfire Law

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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