By Joe Johnson
A man was recently arrested for allegedly firing a rifle at people at an eastside apartment complex.
Carlos Ivan Martinez, 44, of Coleridge Court at Athens Gardens complex, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and reckless conduct, according to the Clarke County Jail’s website.
He was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 2013, according to Clarke County Superior Court records.
Martinez was arrested Jan. 21 after officers responded to Athens Gardens at about 3 p.m. on a report of a fight in progress, with gunshots being fired and a man with a machete, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
One of the first officers to arrive at the scene wrote in the report that he saw the apartment complex’s security guard with his gun drawn, outside of Martnez’s home. The guard reportedly said when he got out of his vehicle, in which he had a detained individual, he got shot at by a rifle.
After officers surrounded Martinez’s apartment with weapons drawn, Martinez appeared at the door and followed instructions to walk back to officer who held position at the front of the suspect’s home, according to the report.
As officers searched for witnesses, most said they did not see anything and walked away, the report noted; however, one man said that he saw a large fight in front of Martinez’s apartment when a man came out of the home with what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle, which he shot at someone before running back inside.
The maintenance supervisor reportedly told police that he had been standing outside an apartment on the second floor of the building across from Martinez’s when he saw two men fighting, one of whom went into Martinex’s apartment and get a rifle.
That man, who the supervisor later identified as Martinez, allegedly pointed the gun in the worker’s direction when he fired a shot, the police report noted.
A woman who lived in an apartment next to where the supervisor had been standing, showed officers bullet hole in her front window and another one in the wall behind the window, according to the report.
The report does not give details about the fight outside the suspect's home, or explain why the security guard had someone in custody.
Detectives and forensics personnel took over the investigation, and Martinez was charged later that evening.
As of Tuesday afternoon, he was being at the county jail without bail being set.