An argument outside an Evansville Circle K over a dropped wallet turned into a gunfire scare Friday night, and police say the man who pulled the trigger later admitted the other side never fired back at all. Paul Socorro Lopez now faces multiple charges, including four counts of intimidation with a deadly weapon, after investigators say he pointed a handgun at a group of people and fired several shots from his car window as he fled the scene.
Officers were dispatched to the Circle K on Fulton Avenue near the Lloyd Expressway for a report of shots fired around 7:30 p.m. Friday, according to WFIE | 14 News. Witnesses told police the confrontation started after a wallet fell to the ground outside the station, and Lopez accused the people standing nearby of trying to steal his belongings.
Shots Fired as Lopez Pulled Away
Police say the confrontation escalated quickly from there. Lopez got into the driver's seat of a car, pointed a handgun at the group, and drove around the parking lot before firing multiple shots out the window as he pulled onto Indiana Street, the station's report states. No injuries were reported despite the gunfire.
Investigators tracked down the vehicle with Lopez still inside Saturday, finding it parked in a lot on North First Avenue, and took him into custody there. During questioning, police told Lopez they had surveillance and cellphone video of the incident. He initially claimed the other group had shot at him first, but later admitted to pointing the gun and firing shots out the window — and admitted the group had never fired at him at all.
Search Turns Up Pills, Multiple Charges Filed
A search of the vehicle turned up pills, according to police, though the report does not detail what was found beyond that. Lopez was ultimately charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, four counts of intimidation with a deadly weapon, pointing a firearm, and possession of a controlled substance. He was booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail.
Gun Violence Trends Across Evansville
The incident lands amid a mixed picture for gun-related crime in Evansville. The city's police department reported 130 weapon-law violations in 2025, down from 156 the year before, according to the Evansville Police Department's annual report. Robberies, however, climbed to 73 in 2025 from 65 in 2024, even as assault offenses dipped slightly to 2,379 from 2,429.
The same report shows the department's drone units were deployed to 13 shots-fired incidents over the year. A separate review covered by Citizen Portal found that in a single month, Evansville police logged 52 total shots-fired dispatch runs, 14 of which generated case numbers, with calls concentrated in the city's South Sector. City commissioners have since asked for expanded breakdowns of gun-violence data, according to Citizen Portal.
Friday's confrontation is not the only recent shots-fired case in the city. In August, police said a juvenile was taken into custody after a separate shots-fired call in Evansville, with a gun recovered during that investigation, per an earlier WFIE report.
