See Update No. 2 at the end of this post on attempted murder no longer being among the charges Tyler Maxwell Tennigkeit is facing. Update No. 1 on the next page identifies the 22-year-old held for Wednesday's Silverado shooting.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 24, 1:54 P.M.: Reports of gunfire near an equestrian center in Jackson Ranch in Silverado late this morning led to Orange County sheriff's SWAT officers descending on the area, the evacuation of around a dozen people and the capture of a driver leaving the area for possibly being involved, authorities said.
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The gunfire report came in around 11 a.m. near Williams Canyon and Modjeska Canyon roads, but SWAT officers were still working to get eight people off the property as of 1:15 p.m., sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock reportedly told City News Service.
A perimeter was established around a home next to the equestrian center, Hallock added.
UPDATE NO. 1, JULY 25, 9:18 P.M.: Tyler Tennigkeit, who'd been detained after a traffic crash near the site of a shooting in Silverado Canyon Wednesday, was in jail on suspicion of attempted murder this morning.
Last night, Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) deputies searched the 22-year-old's residence, which is adjacent to the Jackson Ranch equestrian center where gunfire was heard, and recovered a gun from his bedroom that matched shell casings found at the shooting scene, according to sheriff's
Lt. Jeff Hallock.
“The investigation is ongoing, and (there is) no indication as to why the suspect was shooting,'' Hallock reportedly told City News Service.
No one was hurt in the incident near Williams Canyon and Modjeska Canyon roads, where witnesses later said they heard bullets whizzing by them and ricocheting off trees, according to Hallock. One counted 10 shots fired.
Tennigkeit was first detained after a white sedan he was presumably driving crashed on Santiago Canyon Road. A woman at the equestrian center was held shortly thereafter, but her connection to the shooting has not yet been revealed and no more arrests other than Tennigkeit's have been announced.
Held on $1 million bail, Tennigkeit has a history of weapons and drug convictions, according to Orange County Superior Court records reviewed by the news service. He pleaded guilty Aug. 2, 2011, to carrying a loaded, unregistered gun, illegal possession of a firearm by a convict while on probation and two counts of possession of a deadly weapon, all felonies. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Tennigkeit also pleaded guilty March 29, 2011, to possession of a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, both misdemeanors. He was put on three years of informal probation and ordered to do 10 days of community service.
UPDATE NO. 2, JULY 26, 2:19 P.M.: The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) just announced charges against Tyler Maxwell Tennigkeit that do not include attempted murder.
The Silverado 22-year-old is to be arraigned today on 10 felony counts of discharging a firearm with gross negligence, one felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs with one prior misdemeanor conviction for alcohol related reckless driving in 2012. He also faces a sentencing enhancement for a prior felony conviction for carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in public in 2011, when Tennigkeit earned a state prison sentence.
A conviction could send him back to prison for up to 11 years and eight months, according to the OCDA, which indicated it will seek $1 million bail at the arraignment hearing in Santa Ana.
Prosecutors give no indication as to the motive for Tennigkeit allegedly firing rounds around the equestrian center, where children were among the innocents in the area seeking cover. But the OCDA alleges he “displayed objective signs of being under the influence of drugs” when he was found inside his car after it crashed into a Silverado Canyon Road curb about five miles south of the shooting scene.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.