Fontana police arrest man for shooting flare gun at home

Fontana police have arrested a man for allegedly shooting a flare gun through the window of a home over the weekend, as they continue investigating a Molotov cocktail being thrown at the same property back in October. 

Surveillance camera footage shows a man riding a bicycle stopping outside of a home on Friday at around 6 p.m. before he fires a flare gun and quickly rides away. 

Celeste Gonzalez is unsure why her home is being targeted. 

"I have absolutely no idea who would want to harm me or harm my family like this," she said. 

Gonzalez says that the first incident happened on October 18, when someone threw a Molotov cocktail at their home at around midnight. More security camera footage shows something flying into frame before hitting the roof and falling to the ground. She says that the sprinklers had just gone off, soaking the grass and preventing the flames from spreading. 

"Everyone was sleeping," she said. "No one would have known anything until the sprinklers, fire alarm would have gone off."

She said that she was sitting near the window when the second incident happened on Friday night. 

"I was sitting right there when it happened. So very, very scary to be that close to where the shot was fired," Gonzalez said. 

After the Molotov cocktail incident, Gonzalez says that the family installed more cameras around their house. Those cameras are what captured the suspect approaching their home on Friday. 

She said that another neighbor experienced a similar event in November, when a Molotov cocktail was also allegedly thrown at their home. In that instance, however, she says police responded more aggressively. 

"It's a very ugly feeling to know that someone else can get treated in a different way, when they have the same exact thing happen to them," she said, claiming that police never responded to their home until the second incident took place. 

Gonzalez says that she's happy that an arrest has been made, but she's hopeful that by sharing her own story, it will highlight a need for stronger communication between neighbors and law enforcement. 

Police arrested 29-year-old Bernard Gonzalez-Soberanis on Monday afternoon. They said that an officer recognized him from the flare gun video and was able to identify him as a transient who spends a lot of time in the foothill corridor. 

He was located at a vacant home nearby, where police said they also found several flare guns and flares. They say that he confessed to the flare gun incident, but they're still working to determine who was behind the Molotov cocktail attack.