Police arrested a member of an Oregon State University fraternity Thursday in connection with the shooting last month of a Corvallis man.

Joshua Grimes, 19, of Glide, a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, was arrested on an accusation of second-degree assault and unlawful use of a firearm.

Dennis Sanderson was shot in the leg Oct. 14 with a .22-caliber gun in an alley that runs behind fraternity houses on Northwest 25th and 26th streets, north of Van Buren Avenue.

Corvallis police searched Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, at 331 N.W. 26th St., Thursday morning. Detective Mark Posler said investigators also asked fraternity members if they could search their cars. In the course of that search, police found a weapon they think was used to shoot Sanderson.

“I was walking down the alley and heard a ‘pfft’ sound,” Sanderson said about the shooting. It wasn’t loud.

“I took a step and it hurt,” he said. Then he felt blood running down his leg and realized he’d been shot.

“It was a unprovoked attack,” Sanderson said. “Didn’t say anything to anyone.”

In fact, the alley was empty. So he went to Phi Gamma Delta, a house that sits across the alley from Alpha Gamma Rho, and asked for help. Residents of that house let him use the phone to call 911.

Sanderson was taken to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and treated. Doctors waited two weeks to make sure the entrance wound was healed before removing the bullet. At that point, police confirmed it was a .22-caliber round.

Three members of a neighboring fraternity, who asked that it not be named, said they were surprised at the arrest of Grimes. They are on friendly terms with Alpha Gamma Rho.

“They’re all good guys,” said Ryan McKee. “We play football with them. All our interactions are good.”

McKee and the others said they know Grimes, but not well. He seems like a nice guy, they said.

McKee said there were a number of street people who went through the Dumpsters in the alley often, but they never leave a mess and are usually friendly. He’s never heard of anyone shooting at them.

“I don’t see the motivation for it,” he said.

But Sanderson said it wasn’t the first time he has been shot in that alley. And he is not alone. Laurie Brown, who also looks for cans in the Dumpsters there, said she was shot sometime in February.

“It was a pellet gun,” Brown said. She was at the end of the alley near Harrison Avenue.

“I reported it to a cop and he said, ‘Stay out of the alley,’” Brown said.

Sanderson said he was shot last winter by a BB gun or pellet gun.

“I had a couple of coats on ’cause it was raining,” Sanderson said. He felt the pellets hit his back. He didn’t report it to police.

McKee and the other fraternity members said they have never heard anything worse than yelling in the alley. Maybe an occasional fight erupts among fraternity members when they’ve had a few beers.

Members of Alpha Gamma Rho declined to comment.

OSU Interfraternity Council president Brent Atkinson was surprised at the possibility that the shooting of Sanderson might not be unique.

“I have never experienced any complaints or stories,” he said. “It was a complete shock to me.”

He said he heard a few days ago about some BB guns being used to shoot cans in that alley. But he was not aware of who was doing it and had not heard anything about .22-caliber weapons being used until the police told him about the Sanderson shooting.

“The actions of one individual have a ripple effect,” Atkinson said. He said he and other fraternity members were eager to help the police and close the case.

Atkinson said the major purpose of Greek communities was to develop brotherhood and friendship among the members and to prepare them for leadership. If one of their members violated the values of the community, then the fraternities won’t hide it.

“It’s not a circle-the-wagons mentality,” he said.

Laurie Brown and her husband, Al, said most of the fraternity guys are really nice. Al Brown goes in that alley all the time and has never had a problem.

“It’s just one bad apple,” Al Brown said.