A second man has been charged in connection with a “chaotic” weekend shooting in Allentown that left six people injured and sent dozens of people attending the city’s Dominican Festival scrambling for cover, the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Miguel Angel Ovalles Ubri, 28, of Allentown was charged Friday with attempted homicide and other charges. Law enforcement arrested him Thursday afternoon.
The district attorney’s office and Allentown police on Friday also released police and surveillance video that they said shows Ovalles Ubri and Yunior Peralta-Quintana firing at each other as they stood in a crowd of people, including children, gathered in a parking lot.
The first clip, captured using body camera footage, showed officers running from the front of the nearby 7-Eleven to the parking lot as attendees flee the scene and gunshots rapidly ring out. The same clip shows an officer confronting one of the alleged shooters, ordering him to drop a gun while bystanders, including some children, take cover behind nearby parked vehicles.
The second clip, which was filmed from a nearby surveillance camera, highlighted the two suspects in a large crowd in the parking lot. The crowd dispersed after the two suspects approached each other and starting shooting.
Law enforcement previously charged Peralta-Quintana, 21, of Bethlehem, with attempted homicide.
Peralta-Quintana and Ovalles Ubri also were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. Both have been denied bail and are being held in Lehigh County Jail.
Law enforcement doesn’t believe other suspects were involved with the shooting, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan, who said he wouldn’t comment on any potential motives behind the incident. There’s also no known relationship between the two suspects.
Earlier reports said eight people were shot, but Holihan said Friday two people taken to the hospital were not injured by gunshots.
The shooting began around 6:45 p.m. Sunday in the 100 block of North Seventh Street, Allentown police previously said, near the Dominican Festival.
Holihan said Friday that police arrived while two defendants were still shooting at each other. Two officers fired their weapons, but none of the wounded were shot by the officers, he said.
Detectives under the district attorney’s office are also investigating the officers’ use of weapons.
Police tended to two of the most seriously injured victims, Holihan said, “almost certainly saving their lives in the process.”
Holihan said 20 gunshots were fired by Peralta-Quintana and Ovalles Ubri, and 12 by Allentown police.
Officers recovered the weapon allegedly used by Ovalles Ubri, a 9mm handgun, but didn’t recover the other weapon, Holihan said.
Allentown Police Detective Theodore Kiskeravage and Lehigh County Homicide Task Force Detective Moses Miller are investigating the shooting with help from the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center.
The investigation is ongoing, Holihan said, adding that law enforcement will notify the public of additional evidence. He welcomed residents to submit information or footage regarding the shooting to Allentown police.
Peralta-Quintana is scheduled tohave a preliminary court hearing Tuesday, while Ovalles Ubri is scheduled tohave one next Friday.
Allentown police Chief Charles Roca praised officers for preventing the shooting from becoming worse and for doing “exactly what they were supposed to,” including confronting the suspects and treating injured people.
Regarding how the department may handle differently next year’s Dominican Festival, the chief said, “We constantly evaluate, reevaluate [and] debrief things, and we always make sure to take a look at the big picture. And one of these big-picture items is always safety — that’s paramount to any gathering, organization or event that takes place. So we take that responsibility very seriously, and we’re going to evaluate all circumstances and plan accordingly.”
