Shooter admits injuring woman with gunfire as she pushed a teen to safety

A Marion County Circuit Court judge sentenced a man on Wednesday to 12 and a half years in prison for shooting a woman in August outside a northeast Salem home. 

Israel F. Anaya, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court to attempted second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and possessing a firearm as a felon. Charges of first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon were dismissed as part of his plea deal.

Anaya shot multiple times at the woman and her daughter’s teen boyfriend, neither of whom he knew, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Kyana Hughes said Wednesday at the sentencing.

Circuit Judge Jodie Bureta also sentenced Anaya to five years of post-prison supervision and ordered him to pay $13,300 to the victim.

His brother, 20-year-old Aaron M. Anaya of Lebanon, also faces charges alleging he shot the same woman during the incident. A Marion County grand jury indicted him in September on charges of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. 

He is being held without bail at the Marion County Jail as of Wednesday, and a status check hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27.

The woman was seriously injured in the shooting, according to the brothers’ indictments.

Hughes provided an account of the shooting during the hearing.

The teen boy, now 17, was walking on Northeast 24th Street on Aug. 28, 2022, to get a stuffed animal from a car for a child in the home when the brothers confronted him. They began threatening the teen, telling him, “I’ll shoot you up,” the prosecutor recounted.

Hughes said when the woman came outside and told the teen to go in the house, Anaya told her he would shoot her as well.

“I shot a gun at somebody, and I shot somebody. So that makes me guilty,” Anaya told the judge at the hearing.

A bullet struck the woman in her arm and became lodged in her chest cavity, just missing her heart, according to Hughes. 

“It’s shocking that she didn’t die,” the prosecutor said.

Bureta said video shows Annaya pointing a firearm at the woman and the teen.

The teen’s mother said at the hearing that the victim pushed her son out of the way of gunfire and was struck as a result. She said there were around 12 shots fired during the incident while there were five people under 18 in the house.

Anaya’s attorney, Tiffany Humphrey, said at the hearing that her client was “very high” at the time of the shooting.

Anaya told the judge that he fired the shots because of a “confrontation” but didn’t remember who was involved in the dispute.

The teen who was initially confronted was not struck during the shooting. A bullet was found lodged in the house, which was “full of people” at the time of the shooting, Hughes said.

The shooting occurred in the 400 block of Northeast 24th Street, the Salem Police Department said in a news release at the time.

Salem detectives coordinated with the Linn-Benton Counties Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team, serving a search warrant at the family’s Lebanon home where the brothers were arrested. 

Detectives found eight firearms during the search, according to the department’s statement.

Anaya was on post-prison supervision when he shot the woman, Hughes said.

“He’s clearly never learned from his behavior. His criminal actions are getting worse,” Huges told the judge.

Anaya has criminal convictions dating back to 2013, including for fourth-degree assault, possession of methamphetamine, possessing a firearm as a felon, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.

Bureta said at the hearing that the facts of the August shooting case are “particularly egregious.” She told Anaya that his risk to the community is “outrageous.”

“I don’t know what to say other than I truly hope the rest of us are safe when you get out,” she said.

This story was updated after the amount of money Anaya must pay the victim was amended in court documents.

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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