GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A man who fired his gun to celebrate the New Year now sits in jail facing possible deportation.
Marvin Jeovany Pop Echeverri, 21, fired his gun into the air outside of his home on Preston Lake Drive just after midnight on Jan. 1, Gwinnett County Police told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson.
When someone confronted him about the noise, police say he pointed the gun at them.
Officers arrested Echeverria and charged him with five charges including reckless conduct and aggravated assault.
A judge denied bond and called him a danger to the community. Then Immigration and Customs Enforcement got involved.
ICE placed a hold on Echeverria after his arrest for possible deportation. Gwinnett Police made the initial arrest, and ICE gets involved after arrests are made, typically not during routine police operations in the field.
“Gwinnett County Police is not going to tolerate celebratory gunfire,” said Cpl. Ryan Winderweedle. “It is illegal and it is very dangerous to the community when those guns are fired up into the air.”
Police say the danger is real.
“Those bullets have to come back down at some point,” Winderweedle said. “And sometimes there has been cases where those bullets have hit people as they’ve come back down to the ground.”
Another man, Miguel Vasquez-Gallegos, also fired his gun into the air just after midnight on Selman Drive in Duluth. He faces a misdemeanor charge for reckless conduct.
For both men, a few seconds of celebration could now mean consequences that could last for years.
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