An arrest has been made of the man police say took shots in the Ceres Walmart parking lot during the holiday shopping season.

Vuthy Eang, 25, of Ceres, was arrested Tuesday, Dec. 29 at his home, and charged with attempted murder. Police recovered the gun believed to have been used in the crime.
Reports of a shooting inside the parking lot were phoned into 911 at around 2 p.m. on the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 10.

Witnesses reported seeing a disturbance in the parking lot involving two vehicles and hearing one gunshot. As one of the involved vehicles attempted to flee the area, witnesses reported an unknown Asian male fired three to five shots at the fleeing vehicle and then fled the area in a silver-colored Honda. Both vehicles left the area prior to the arrival of police.

Several minutes later, a vehicle matching the description of one of the vehicles was involved in a traffic collision on Mitchell Road near Riverside Road. Ceres police officers spoke to the female driver and male passenger who were uninjured from the collision. Officers determined that the occupants at the crash site were the victims in the shooting incident at Walmart but were not injured. Several rounds had struck the car, however.

"He admitted to a shot going off inside the vehicle," said Ceres Police Sgt. Danny Vierra. "Some type of struggle happened inside the car over a marijuana transaction."

Eang was on felony probation for prior weapons convictions, said Sgt. Vierra. He is being held in Stanislaus County Jail on a $500,000 bail.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Ceres Police Department or Detective Bryan Ferreira at 538-5616.