Baker City Man Faces Felony Charges After Shotgun Fired Inside Home

Gregory Raymond Alvarez, 64, faces two felony counts after Baker City police say he fired a shotgun at the door of a room inside his Baker Street home where a couple had been staying, allegedly to force them out.

Alvarez was arrested on Jan. 10 at 1505 Baker St. following a Baker City Police Department response to a reported assault at approximately 9:14 a.m. No one was hurt. The couple left the residence after the shot was fired and contacted police.

According to the arresting officer's probable cause affidavit, Alvarez told officers he had been trying to remove the two individuals since the night before. "Upon contact with Alvarez inside the kitchen of his residence he stated that [withheld] and [withheld] had been living in one of the rooms for about one month and he wanted them to leave," the affidavit states. "Alvarez said he had been telling them since the night before to leave, and that they wouldn't leave...He said that in the morning, after they continued to refuse to leave, he fired [the] shotgun at their door."

The Baker County District Attorney's office charged Alvarez with two counts of unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm, a Class C felony, along with two counts each of menacing and recklessly endangering another person, both Class A misdemeanors.

Baker County Circuit Court Judge Matt Shirtcliff granted Alvarez a conditional release from Baker County Jail on Jan. 23. Under the terms of that release, Alvarez must reside at a home on Oak Street and cannot leave without a man who also signed the release agreement.

Judge Shirtcliff subsequently ordered Alvarez to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is capable of assisting in his own defense on the two felony charges, according to a March 9 report by the Baker City Herald. The case remains pending in Baker County Circuit Court.