Victim sustained non- life-threatening injuries in Sunday morning fight

Twenty-one-year-old Pima Community College student Jordan Prather was shot early Sunday morning by a UA student at the popular University Boulevard restaurant No Anchovies.

Liberal arts freshman Jacob M. Ochoa was arrested for aggravated assault, serious injury and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the incident, which left Prather in the hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Ochoa is being held in Pima County Jail.

Michelle Pickrom, Tucson Police Department spokeswoman, said the shooting happened just after midnight on Sunday when an argument began over a seat.

Pickrom said Ochoa approached two men sitting in the patio area of No Anchovies, 870 E. University Blvd., and accused them of taking his seat.

Ochoa then hit one of the men and lifted up his shirt to show a handgun to the other, said Pickrom. The two men wrestled Ochoa to the ground because they feared he would use the gun.

Prather, who had been eating at No Anchovies, went to help hold Ochoa to the ground.

Pickrom said Ochoa then managed to pull out the handgun and shot Prather in the leg.

I saw the gun and I thought, 'What is that? Is that a cap gun?' ... I didn't know what to think. - Robert West Pima Community College student

"Ochoa then ran out of No Anchovies and was stopped by several other witnesses who detained him until police arrived," Pickrom said.

Robert West, another Pima student, said he was at No Anchovies when the shooting occurred.

"I saw the gun and I thought, 'What is that? Is that a cap gun?' ... I didn't know what to think," he said.

West said he saw several men trying to wrestle Ochoa to the ground and saw a No Anchovies employee get bit on the finger by Ochoa.

He then saw the blast from the gun.

The men wrestling Ochoa managed to get the gun away from him after the shot was fired, and Ochoa ran off, West said.

Josh Flannigan, an architecture senior and bartender at No Anchovies, said he was retrieving beer from a downstairs storage room at the restaurant when the shooting occurred.

Flannigan said the last songs of the night were being played at Frog & Firkin, 874 E. University Blvd., and obscured the sounds of the scuffle upstairs.

When he heard gunfire, he immediately ran up the stairs and saw a crowd of people holding Ochoa on the corner.

"If you start a fight here, you start a fight with everyone," Flannigan said.

Jim McArthur, an economics master's candidate, and Tucsonan Dave Smith said they were sitting nearby when they heard the shot.

McArthur described the scene as one of barely controlled panic and said that, though he saw several people running around or ducking under tables, there was little shouting or screaming.

He said that when police arrived, Ochoa was cooperative and allowed police to handcuff him and take him away.

Smith said he thought the witnesses who held Ochoa down were courageous.

McArthur agreed.

"The patrons were the heroes - no question," he said.