UPDATE: Ogden dispute leads to deadly shooting, police say
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- A photo of Royer Peña at a streetside memorial on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden, near where police say he was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested, police said Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023.
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- Carlos Peña sits at a streetside memorial to his son, Royer Peña, on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. Royer Peña was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, near the location, according to police, and the alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested. Royer Peña is pictured in the two photos placed at the memorial, with some of his kids in one of them.
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- A photo of Royer Peña and some of his kids at a streetside memorial on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden, near where police say he was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested, police said Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, when the photo was taken.
Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner
A photo of Royer Peña at a streetside memorial on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden, near where police say he was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested, police said Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023.
OGDEN — An apparent dispute in an Ogden neighborhood Monday night turned deadly, and a man has been arrested on a preliminary charge of murder in the matter, Ogden police said Tuesday.
Brendon Powell, 25, allegedly shot a man several times after using a drone to investigate some sort of “commotion” in a car in or around the 700 block of Liberty Avenue, according to a police statement and an affidavit in the matter. Police said the victim, a 31-year-old man who they did not name, died on the scene.
Both Powell, who’s being held without bail, and the victim — later identified by his wife as Royer Peña — are from the area, according to the police statement. Peña’s wife, Eveline Peña, and other family had put up an impromptu memorial to the man Tuesday afternoon near the corner of 750 North and Liberty Avenue, where they say the incident occurred.
“We don’t know exactly what happened yet,” Eveline Peña said.
Police received a report of someone with a gunshot wound shortly before 10 p.m. Monday. Powell “advised dispatch that he had shot an individual multiple times over a dispute regarding a drone,” reads the affidavit in the matter.
Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner
Carlos Peña sits at a streetside memorial to his son, Royer Peña, on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. Royer Peña was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, near the location, according to police, and the alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested. Royer Peña is pictured in the two photos placed at the memorial, with some of his kids in one of them.
Powell told police he had heard a commotion coming from a car near his home so he flew his drone closer to the location to investigate. The drone hit a tree and the man who ultimately was killed, Peña, apparently retrieved the object, according to the affidavit.
“Surveillance video from Brendon’s residence shows him flying a drone. In the surveillance video you are able to hear Brendon’s drone hit a tree. Brendon racks the slide of the firearm prior to approaching the victim. Moments go by as the two are heard arguing. A discharge of approximately seven rounds are heard,” reads the affidavit.
Eveline Peña said her husband had gone outside from their home in the 600 block of 750 North to have a cigarette before going to bed when the incident happened.
“He texted me about the drone bugging him,” she said, but heard no more from her husband. She later exited the home “and I saw nothing but cops.”
The Peñas have five children aged 1 to 10, Eveline Peña said. She said they were to celebrate 16 years together as a couple this month.
Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner
A photo of Royer Peña and some of his kids at a streetside memorial on Liberty Avenue in northern Ogden, near where police say he was shot and killed in a confrontation on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The alleged gunman, Brendon Powell, has been arrested, police said Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, when the photo was taken.
In the affidavit, which also didn’t name Peña, Powell said the man who retrieved the drone first ran away, “then turned toward him with one hand on the drone and one hand in his pocket.”
Powell was ordered to be held without bail. He had not yet been formally charged in 2nd District Court as of early Tuesday afternoon.