Nebraska State Patrol arrests Peru shooting suspect

PERU, Neb. (WOWT) - The Nebraska State Patrol has made an arrest in a weekend shooting in southeast Nebraska.

NSP told 6 News an arrest warrant was issued Thursday for Guadalupe DeLaCruz, 58, who turned himself in Friday for shooting a 25-year-old Saturday night.

According to NSP, Saturday, June 18, the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office was called to a shooting near the 1200 block of Sixth Street in Peru.

NSP says the sheriff’s office requested the State Patrol takes over the case because they have different resources to help in the investigation, such as being able to reconstruct the shooting.

After an investigation, troopers say they determined DeLaCruz entered his neighbor’s property during a dispute and discharged a handgun twice, striking the victim and missing another person.

Mark Dupre describes the wild scene recalling DeLaCruz’s alleged words as he ignores the family’s no trespassing signs and barges through their backward waving a handgun.

“It was like watching the devil basically. And now what am I supposed to do because I have a bullet through my shoulder,” said Mark.

The victim was sent to the Bryan Health Center West Campus in Lincoln for treatment. They have since been released.

During the mayhem, Dupre’s pregnant fiance says she saw her life flash before her eyes as she and other adults scrambled to get the young children to safety.

Looking back she says she can’t believe it was all over a supposed noise complaint.

“They said they didn’t want to hear our music and it was a family town,” said Katelan Jacobs.

According to NSP, several people were at the victim’s property at the time of the shooting, including children.

After turning himself in, DeLaCruz was booked into Nemaha County Jail for first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony, child abuse and carrying a concealed weapon.

“When NSP is requested to conduct an investigation, we conduct a complete investigation and refer it to the county attorney for potential charges. That process includes interviews and examination of evidence. That process takes time. In this case, the county attorney appointed a special prosecutor due to a conflict, which extended that time. The CA would have to be the contact for questions on that.”

Reporter Lauren Melendez contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved.