Guadalupe Villanueva, Wanted For Shooting That Critically Injured 3-Year-Old, Involved In Earlier Unsolved Fatal Shooting

(CBS4) -- Nineteen-year-old Guadalupe Villanueva of Denver was arrested Jan. 24th at the U.S.-Mexico border. He is accused by investigators with the Denver Police Department of injuring two people, including a 3-year-old girl, in an argument over a handicap parking space in late December that culminated in gunfire.

The young girl was shot in the head, likely an inadvertent victim as Villanueva fired rounds at a man who was walking around Villanueva's Subaru Outback in a shopping center parking lot.

"It appears (the man) may have been taking pictures of a vehicle that was parked in a handicapped spot with one of the tires up on a curb," said DPD Lt. Matt Clark. "At some point an individual associated with that vehicle came out of a business and he began shooting at the man who was taking pictures of the vehicle. These rounds struck both the male who was taking pictures and the young child that was in the vehicle nearby."

The young girl is still hospitalized in critical condition.

The man taking the pictures of Villanueva's car was released from the hospital the next day.

CBS4 has learned Villanueva was involved in a separate shootout last spring that killed two men.

Villanueva, who was himself injured in that shootout, was arrested by Denver PD the day of the incident and held for investigation of First Degree Murder, according to online court records. He was released, however, two days later. No formal charges were ever filed.

Officers responding to the 1600 block of South Tennyson Street on April 11th, 2020, determined an argument led to several people firing their guns. A 15-year-old boy, Fabian Medina, was found dead in the street among gun casings. A second male, 36-year-old Jose Contreras, was taken by others to a nearby residence. He died in the back seat of a car while en route, according to the Denver Medical Examiner's Office.

To date, no one has been held responsible for their deaths.

Villanueva was captured last week by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents while he was re-entering the United States from Mexico. According to a press release from the Border Patrol, agents stopped a 2008 Toyota Camry with four people inside. While performing an inspection of the vehicle, agents determined Villanueva was wanted on Denver's felony warrant for two counts of attempted murder.

Another person in the car, Amaya Wild, 18, was also arrested. Wild is believed to have played a role in the December incident. A search of online criminal records shows Wild faces eight felony counts of accessory to crime.

The pair will be extradited to Denver in the near future.

Villanueva's case documents have been sealed.