A 17-year-old boy was shot in the face after he and another teen hopped a fence onto private property in Conifer to scope out a good place for homecoming photos, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
A member of the Mountain View Town Council was arrested in the shooting.
The boy told a sheriff’s deputy before he was taken by ambulance to a hospital that he and his friend drove to the property in Pleasant Park, parked at the home’s gate, jumped the fence and walked up the driveway to try to speak to the homeowner.
The boys walked around the property trying to find a homeowner and then returned to their car, where they began writing a note to ask about the possibility of a homecoming photo shoot. That’s when a truck pulled up next to them on the public road, the driver got out and shot at them through the car’s windshield, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The round struck the 17-year-old in the face.
When deputies arrived, they found the boy “bleeding heavily from his face” and his friend applying pressure to his face with a T-shirt.
Deputies came to the residence Tuesday afternoon because the homeowner had called Jefferson County dispatch to report that she saw two trespassers on the property, which is in the mountains southwest of Denver. She also called her boyfriend to alert him of the trespassers. The woman wasn’t home, but saw the teens via the property’s security system.
Brent Metz, 38, the caller’s boyfriend and a member of the Mountain View Town Council, was arrested and booked in jail on charges of first-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment. Deputies found the gun inside Metz’ truck, and Metz was standing next to the boys when deputies arrived, they said.
The sheriff’s department did not say what kind of gun was used in the shooting. The teen was still hospitalized Wednesday, authorities said.