ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A homeless man is facing an attempted homicide charge after authorities in Allentown accused him of shooting another man in the face last month.
Carlos Oyola-Gonzalez, 44, also was charged late Tuesday with one count each of aggravated assault with attempts to cause serious bodily injury with extreme indifference and aggravated assault with attempts to cause bodily injury with a deadly weapon, as well as two counts of simple assault.
Allentown police responded at 4:42 p.m. June 30 to the area of North Morris and West Allen streets, where a shooting was reported, according to a release.
There, officers found a man with multiple gunshot wounds to his face and body. He was transported to a local hospital by Allentown EMS with serious injuries.
Court documents indicate the victim was intubated at the hospital. After waking up, he identified Oyola-Gonzalez as the man who shot him, court records state.
A witness told police she saw Oyola-Gonzalez arguing with the victim inside an apartment before she left; by the time she returned, the victim had been shot and Oyola-Gonzalez was gone, according to charging documents.
Another witness said he saw two men walking in the back yard of a home in the 500 block of Park Street just before hearing three “loud bangs” that sounded like gunshots, court documents state.
He then saw the victim walk out of the yard “bleeding from his face,” according to authorities.
Surveillance footage captured parts of that interaction but not the shooting, court documents indicate.
Police followed "a blood trail" from where they found the victim to the rear of the Park Street home, where the man was shot, according to court documents.
They found a bullet hole in the door and blood leading out of the residence; inside was a "large amount of blood" and the apartment looked to have been ransacked," authorities allege.
A handwritten note on the affidavit of probable cause filed against Oyola-Gonzalez says, “the defendant shot the victim in the face, attempting to kill him.”
Oyola-Gonzalez was arraigned Tuesday night in Magisterial District Judge Ronald Manescu’s court.
On Wednesday he was in Lehigh County Jail; the judge denied bail because Oyola-Gonzalez “is homeless and is charged with shooting [the] victim 2x in the face,” according to the criminal docket for his case.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. July 14.
Court documents show Oyola-Gonzalez also was arraigned Tuesday on charges of possession of controlled substances, tampering with evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest.
Bail is set at $20,000 on those charges.
