GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Court documents are providing insight into how investigators managed to track down the 18-year-old suspect in a shootout with police over the weekend.
Saul Rodriguez was arraigned on five felonies Thursday afternoon — two counts of assault with attempt to murder, two counts of felony firearms, and one count of carrying a concealed weapon.
He was given a $500,000 bond.
"The court has concerns in regards not only to community safety but also for you being a flight risk, sir," Judge Kellen A. Dotson said Wednesday.
If convicted on all counts, he could face a sentence up to life in prison.
Rodriguez previously appeared in a Kent County courtroom via live video feed on Wednesday morning.
He was there to face unrelated carjacking and assault charges in another case. He was given a $250,000 bond for that case.
Rodriguez was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon at his girlfriend's home on Oxford SW.
According to documents filed with Kent County's 61st District Court, Rodriguez showed up there just an hour after a shootout with police.
During an interview with investigators, his girlfriend allegedly said that Rodriguez told her that night "that he had done something bad, and later confided that he had shot at the police.”
Two GRPD officers were driving north on Division Avenue a few minutes before midnight Saturday night when they tried to initiate a traffic stop.
The vehicle pulls in to a parking lot a few hundred feet north of the Four Star Theater and begins to slow down.
Before things come to a stop, a young man jumps out of the backseat driver's side and runs towards a nearby alley.
One of the officers notices the man is armed.
"He's got a gun," one of them yells in body-worn camera video the department has since released.
"Drop that f_____g gun."
Seconds later, investigators say the man turns slightly and begins firing towards them.
Both officers returned fire. Thankfully, nobody was hit.
Court documents say that Saul Rodriguez's mother showed up on scene of the shooting shortly after it happened.
"Ms. Rodriguez-Jiminez stated she received an anonymous call, advising her that the police had shot her son,” it reads.
His mother spoke briefly with police about her son, allegedly telling them he typically carried a Wi-Fi-based cell phone.
Police say they found three cell phones in the car they pulled over on Division, one of them was one of these Wi-Fi phones.
Eventually they realized that the background on the particular phone was a photo of Rodriguez's young daughter.
Investigators also say in the court documents that they had access to data extracted from a cell phone belonging to Rodriguez's brother.
Inside the phone, they allegedly found potentially incriminating Snapchat conversations.
Documents allege that an account owned by Saul Rodriguez typed to his brother's account, "Im gonna get attempt murder on a cop” [sic].
His brother apparently responding, “they dont know it was U.”
Saul returns, “They aint get no gi either…" [sic].
A few seconds later he apparently corrects himself, saying, “gun.”
After Rodriguez was taken into custody Tuesday, investigators were able to conduct an interview.
According to investigators, “He stated that he discharged one round at the ground in front of him as he was being chased to attempt to evade arrest. He stated he dropped the gun during the foot chase."
Rodriguez is expected back in court on March 19.
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